This New Water World
by Amarisx
Summary: OC Story - Follow the journey of Aoi D. Keii, as she has her own grand adventure with the crew she gathers in the rough seas.
1. Chapter 1

**~This new water world~**

**Ch.1**

_A.n.: .. It's been a long time? I finally have an idea for a new fanfic.. So, here it is! This is obviously a fanfic for One Piece. This is also obviously an OC story. I only own one of them, but she will appear later w This chapter is mostly about the OC of (The most awesome, sweetest person in the world) Cate-chan.. And the OC is called.. Nah, you know what? You'll see.. ENOUGH TALKING.. Go read already -w-._

The sun was shining on this bright, hot summer day. It's beautiful rays reflected on the surface of the sea, flowing in a beach with sand that was almost white. A few palm trees rose up from the sand and it was very quiet. The beach itself was kind of small, not more than 5 or 6 meters between the sea and the cliffs that surrounded the hidden paradise. The only sounds that were heard, were the chirping of the uncommon birds and the sound of a hammer. The rhythm of the sound was very calming, in perfect harmony with the chirping of the birds. The one creating the sound, was a little girl. She had gold-blonde hair, was wearing a light blue dress and she was around 6 years old. With a content smile on her face, she was busy with a few logs, planks and the hammer. A small box of nails was in the front pocket of her dress, where she occasionally would pick out a nail. She looked exhausted and her knees and dress were a bit dirty, but she was very concentrated on her own little project. It was still a work in progress, but you could clearly see it was going to be a raft. After some time, she sighed and placed the hammer on the ground next to her, climbing on her newly finished raft and grinned widely, shouting: "It's done! It's all done! Finally I can become a pirate!". She quickly jumped off the raft and ran up the stairs that was hidden behind a few bushes, shouting the same thing over and over again as she approached her house. She bursted inside and immediately searched for her mother, who was sitting in the living room, reading a newspaper. The girl ran up to her mother and hugged her tightly. "Mom, I can finally become a pirate! My project is finished! Do you want to see, mom? Please? It looks really good!" shouted the girl happily. Her mother placed the newspaper on a nearby table and smiled warmly. "Alright, Keii, give me a few minutes. But don't go shouting around that you're going to be a pirate, you know that those nice people from the Marine won't like it."

The village where Keii and her mother lived in, was controlled by marines. Most of the people in the village also wanted to be a Marine. It's also a village for retired Marines, that's why Keii's mother moved there with her husband and her daughter. Keii's father, a former marine officer, passed away after a strange illness that roamed around the town a few years ago, but Keii was too young to ever get to know him. Keii's mother decided to stay in the village, even though she wasn't a retired Marine. She couldn't leave because of her husband's grave. She always said that she wanted to stay close to him, and if she'd die, she would get a grave next to him. But she was still young, around her 40's, so that will take a long time. After Keii's father died, she became very interested in pirates. Her mother tried to talk her out of it, but it was no use. Keii was very determined once she decided something. She once noticed the wanted posters which were scattered around the town and she adored them all, mostly shouted that she would someday get a bounty on her head too. Keii doesn't have any friends, because there aren't many children of her age in the village and they don't like her because she doesn't want to be a Marine. But Keii never actually cares about it. She's mostly busy building rafts or drawing pictures of future boats, flags and crew members she wants.

After a long time of waiting, Keii's mother finally arrived on the beach, where Keii was still waiting on her raft. Keii immediately started to jump happily. "Look, mom! It looks nice, doesn't it? I could sail around the world with this! Maybe even to the grand line!" Her mother laughed at the happiness of her daughter and said with a warm voice: "Of course, dear. It looks amazing. You're really, really talented when it comes to building boats.". Keii smiled as bright as she could, because she would always be happy when her mother was complimenting her. She ran up to her mother and hugged her tightly again. "Thank you, mom!" She said. Keii's mother smiled and gave her a soft kiss on her forehead. Before walking back to their house, Keii and her mother quickly covered the raft with a huge blanket, so the Marines won't see it. When they arrived at her house, Keii decided to go outside and play before dinner. Her mother agreed and Keii ran outside, into the forest. The forest right behind her village was her favourite place. She would mostly climb in trees or she would try to search for some animals. But this time it was different. A bird flew right over her head, and it's claw got stuck behind a branch. Keii hurried over to help the bird, and noticed a weird, swirly, blue fruit rolling away from the struggling bird. She quickly picked up the fruit and placed it in the front pocket of her dress before helping the bird. It was quickly free and it flew away as fast as it could. When the bird was gone, Keii examined the fruit. It looked pretty tasty and her stomach was growling. She decided it wouldn't be a big deal to eat it, because she would get more later, anyway. She sniffed on it, before taking a few bites and after a while it was gone. She ran back to her house, her stomach contently and walked inside, smiling brightly at her mother. "Mom! I found this weird, blue fruit in the forest! It tasted so great, but I'm still hungry!" Her mother walked in the hallway to greet her, but her eyes turned big in shock, and Keii asked innocently: "M-Mom? Is something wrong?" "Keii, y-your hand!". Keii immediately looked down at her hand and notices that her fingers turned into swirly streams of water.

8 years have passed since that day, and Keii is now 14. She has changed since the day she ate the Mizu Mizu no mi. She still has her gold-blonde hair, but it now reaches to her shoulders and a small part is tied in a ponytail on the back of her head. She wears a blue, open, long jacket, black shorts and black shoes. She has a small scar under her eye, one on her ankle and one across her chest but that one is hidden with a bandage. She got all the scars because of the fights she got in with other children and Marines. The other children were mostly jealous because of the fact that a 'pirate girl' found a devil fruit. Keii's mother was still proud of her daughter, no matter what the other villagers would think. Keii still spent most of her time on the hidden beach, busy with her biggest project: A real boat. It was almost done and she was working hard to finish it as soon as possible. She wanted to get out of her village. She was completely done with the other children and the marines. She wanted to be a pirate, her life-long dream. She wanted to search for her own crew. When it was afternoon, she was finally done. Done with the start of her ultimate dream. She screamed happily and excitedly. Running back to her house and hugged her mother. "Mom! It's done! My project! I can go out sailing now! Can I go? Please?". Her mother sighed, clearly thinking it was very hard to say goodbye to her daughter and she smiled, trying her best to hold back her tears. "S-Sure, dear. But I'll really miss you. You can go, if you promise to visit me sometimes. Or call me if you ever find a Den Den Mushi."

After she packed her stuff together with her mom, who wrote the number of her Den Den Mushi in a small notebook in her bag, they were standing on the hidden beach, Keii already standing in her boat. "Well," Keii said "I guess this is goodbye, then?". A small tear ran down Keii's cheek, as she hugged her mother for one last time. "Promise me you won't get yourself killed. If you ever need help, I'll always be with you. And please, find a Den Den Mushi as soon as possible, so you can call me sometimes and tell me how your adventure is going." Her mother said, also a few tears running down her slightly wrinkled cheeks. "I promise, mom. Thanks for always supporting me." With that, Keii let go of her mother and raised the sails, sailing away from the hidden beach and waving wildly at her mom. When the island disappeared, Keii wiped her tears away and looked at the sea in front of her. She decided to just sail into nowhere, until she would find a new island with a new adventure.


	2. Chapter 2

**~This new water world~**

**Ch. 2**

_A.n.: Second chapter.. I'm on a roll today! XD So this will be the chapter about Keii's first crew member .w._

"I'm sick of this shit! Go and cook it all yourself!" Shouts a voice from a small restaurant on an island. It's another bright day on this island and it's quiet. But that silence got broken when the voice shouted. A girl with red hair right past her shoulders, an orange scarf, yellow and green shirt, blue vest, blue short-shorts with a belt and black boots with yellow and green socks stomps out of the restaurant after another complain of her cooking-skills. The chef yells after her: "You know what? Don't show your face here ever again, Layla! This was the 8th person to complain this week and I'm sick of your lack of skill!". Layla almost tears up at his words, but she's strong and doesn't dare to cry over this. She stomps back to her house, ignoring the people who stare at her and she furiously closes the door of her house. She walks over to her couch and lies down on it, staring at the roof and sighs, thinking about what happened that day.

This sunny day started good for Layla, as she went to her work with a bright grin on her face. She loved cooking for others, and the good part was that she worked in a local restaurant. She got complains sometimes, though. About the food being too cold or too salt. The people in her village were not quickly pleased when it came to cooking. They only wanted the best of the best. Layla entered the back door of the restaurant that morning, and she immediately went to work. Her father, the chef of the restaurant, was already busy with breakfasts for a few customers, and smiled brightly when his daughter walked inside. "Oi, Leyla. Slept well last night? I was home late, because of the cleaning, so.." he started. "Hmn. It doesn't matter, dad. I know you're busy." Leyla interrupted, forcing a smile on her face. She knew her father was almost never home. He was mostly busy with cleaning up the restaurant after a busy day of work, or he had to go far away with his small boat to get more ingredients, because the ground on the island wasn't very fertile. He had a party too every month. The only times he talked to his daughter was in the mornings at the restaurant and at break-time in the afternoon. "So, what do I need to do today, chef?" Layla said emotionlessly. She hasn't got a strong bond with her father, so she never acted happy to see him. "Some people ordered a vegetable salad. You can go and prepare that." He said. Layla nodded and went to work right away. She chopped up the ingredients nicely, placing them in a bowl as careful as possible. She tried her best not to ruin the looks, and when one of the vegetable pieces cracked a little, she replaced it. But then there was the worst part: Spices. It was always too much or too little for the customers. Layla tried her best to put exactly the right spices in it with the right amount. She was confident that they would like it this time and she walked back to her father, holding the salad in her hand. "I'm done, chef. Do you want to taste it first or should I bring it to them right now?" "You can bring it right now," her dad answered, "they must be waiting for a long time now." Layla nodded and brought the salad to the right customer, placing it on the table and waited next to the man. She hoped that he would like it. He would be the first to like it in the long time she worked here. She always did her best for the meals, but it was never good enough. "Too salty." Said the man quietly, and brought the salad to the trash can, throwing it away. Layla tried her best to restrain herself. It wouldn't be good for the reputation of the restaurant to start a fight. She just walked back to the kitchen, no emotion showing on her face. "And? What did he said?" Layla's father said as she entered the kitchen. "H-He said.. It was too salty." Layla whispered. "What? Again? Layla, this is shameful! You are pure disgrace of this restaurant! What are you trying to do? Ruin my reputation?" Her father yelled. "It isn't my fault! I tried my best, okay? Why do you always want me to get the best of the best? Only to hold YOUR reputation good? What am I, some sort of machine to you?" Layla yelled back. Fights like this usually occurred between her and her father when a customer wasn't happy, but it was different this time. "You know what? Go home for today." Her father said extremely calm. Layla stared at him in confusion before yelling: "You know what? I'm sick of this shit! Go cook it all yourself!" And she stomped out of the door.

And now she was here, still lying on the couch and staring at the roof. It was always her fault, even though she always tried her best to cook as good as possible. It was never good for these people. She stood up and walked through her back door to the forest. She needed a bit of fresh air, she needed a bit of running. She closed her eyes, soon changing in her wolf-form and running into the forest. She still remembers the exact day she ate a devils fruit.

It was a cold, winter evening and Layla was still only 8 years old. She was playing in the snow because her father was busy at the restaurant, and she couldn't help him. At these kind of late evenings, she would always play outside. She was playing around in the snow, rolling in it and giggling happily. She eventually got a bit hungry, so she decided to check in her father's ingredient storage for a small snack. She rummaged through the ingredients until she found a small box. The box was labelled: 'SPECIAL INGREDIENT. DO NOT OPEN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.'. And like every normal child, Layla got curious and opened the box. She saw a strange-looking, grey coloured fruit. It had a swirl pattern on it and it was shaped like some kind of melon. Layla started laughing at the strange fruit because she thought it looked tasty, but funny at the same time. She brought the fruit inside and inspected it. She also smelled it for a moment, noticing how exotic it smelled. 'Must be from a foreign country..' she thought and she grabbed a knife, slicing a small piece off of it. "Well, here goes nothing." She said before eating the piece. Her eyes went wide when the rich taste flowed through her mouth. In 10 minutes, the whole fruit was gone and she sat contently on the couch, stroking over her almost round stomach with a sleepy smile. After a few minutes, she fell asleep on the couch. The day after that, her dad scolded her for eating the fruit. He explained it was an Inu Inu no mi, wolf model. Layla tried her new powers right after the whole explanation and it changed her whole life. She had to keep it hidden, though. Nobody liked a cook who was part wolf, so she could only change at night.

She was thinking about this day when she was running through the forest. After a while, she was running back to her house, changing back and went to bed. Her thoughts being completely clear, she fell asleep.

The next day, Layla decided she was sick of this. She packed her stuff and was now walking in the direction of her father's boat. She quickly jumped in the boat, and raised the sails. So here she was, sailing on the sea and waiting for the wind to bring her somewhere. After a long time of traveling, she heard screaming in the distance. She shot up and looked around her, noticing another small boat on the water. She steered to it and noticed there was a blonde-haired girl on the other boat. She screamed: "Hey, you there! Are you looking for a captain?" Layla thought for a moment. Maybe this was some kind of pirate? She never actually thought about being a pirate. But she was very spontaneously sometimes, so she yelled back with a big grin: "If you need a cook, then I can help you out!" "Alright, can you get over here? My boat is kind of going in one direction because I can't steer this thing!" Layla laughed at the silliness of this girl, and after a while of struggling with the sails she finally reached the other girl's boat. She ties one end of a rope on the front of her boat, and the other end on the back of the other boat. "Well, this is another way of meeting people, right? Who are you anyway?" Layla questioned. "I'm Aoi D. Keii! But you can just call me Keii for short. And you?" Keii questioned back. "Oh, ehm.. I-I'm Layla.. Nice to meet you?" Layla said with a sheepish smile. "Nice to meet you too! So I guess you want to join my pirate crew, right? I was sailing around to find some crew members. You looked rather lonely, so I decided to just ask!" Keii said happily. "Ehm.. Sure? I'll join your crew. But I bet we need a better boat than this soon, because this one doesn't have a kitchen. "

After they both told what happened to them today, they decided to work together to build up a crew. Keii as the captain and Layla as the first-mate, they headed to a new destination to find new members for their crew.


	3. Chapter 3

**~This new water world~**

**Ch. 2**

_A.n.: Again a new chapter.. With a new OC.. I do not own One Piece, Layla or Keii.^^_

"Man, it's way too cold around h-here!" Keii said, sitting in the small room of her boat together with Layla, a blue blanket wrapped around her and she was shivering like crazy. "T-True.. But I b-bet we'll be at an island s-soon" Layla said back, also shivering and with a green blanket wrapped around her. Keii sighed and looked outside the small hole in the wall that served as a window. There were small snowflakes falling slowly on the wood, melting after a few seconds. Keii hoped they wouldn't be in a snow storm, or else they wouldn't survive with their boats because of the lack of isolation. Layla suddenly stood up after a while. "I think I'll make some soup for us. At least that'll keep us a bit warm" she said as she pulled on her thick jacket and walked outside. Layla gracefully jumped on her own boat. She was lucky there was a kitchen on her boat. Layla's boat served as a kitchen and dinner room while Keii's boat was their bedroom and living room. Layla quickly walked inside the kitchen, quickly closing it so the cold wind wouldn't get in. She walked over to the pile of firewood and picked up a few logs, placing them in the old stove. She did an attempt to light it with firestones, which worked after a long time of struggling. Layla gathered some ingredients from the small cupboards and decided to keep it as simple as possible so they would have enough food until they reached an island.

Meanwhile, Keii was still sitting in the bedroom. She stood up and also pulled on a winter jacket, deciding she would go outside because she became bored of sitting around and do nothing. She walked outside, to the front of the ship. She looked around the horizon, trying to spot an island but was still unable too. The falling show formed a white curtain and the thick mist wasn't helping either. She sighed and walked over to the back of the boat, jumping on Layla's boat and walked inside the kitchen. She sat down on a chair near the small, wooden table and whined: "Layla~! Hurry up with that soup, I'm starving!" "Yeah, yeah! Just a few minutes. Can't you just wait for your meal? Impatient?" Layla said with a smirk. "Pseh, it's just that I always got my meals on time when I was still home, so I guess I got used to being impatient?" Keii said back.

After a few minutes of waiting and Keii whining, the soup was finally done. After Layla placed a bowl in front of Keii, she immediately started eating. Layla chuckled and sat down, starting with her own meal and kept looking up at Keii, a bit unsure. After a few moments of eating, Keii finally noticed and stared back. "Ehm.. Why the hell are you staring at me, Layla?" Keii said, raising an eyebrow in confusion. Layla looked away, smiling a bit sheepishly. "Oh, ehm.. I was just wondering if you like it. I'm used to people hating my food and you looked so pleased while eating!" "Well, it's really delicious!" Keii said, smiling friendly and continued eating. Layla sighed, also smiling because Keii was the first person to ever like her food.

After they were done with their meal, Layla walked back to the living/bedroom and sat down again with the blanket wrapped around her. Keii decided to stay on the deck, just so she would be the first to spot an island. After a long waiting of 4 hours, Keii finally saw a small peak of a mountain in the distance. Her gloomy face immediately cleared up and she shouted: "Layla! Layla~! I see an island! An island! Finally an island, Layla!". Keii bursted inside the room, only to be greeted by a happy Layla, who was jumping around in joy and shouted: "Our first, strange island! We can finally stock up with some food!" They were silent for a moment, thinking and eventually stared at each other before Layla said: "Do you.. Have money?" Keii shook her head and they both sat back down on the floor. "Damn it," Keii said "what are we going to do without money? We can't buy an awesome ship. Or food. Or weapons." "We'll figure something out, I guess. We can also just play as poor people and beg." Layla said, smirking a bit at the thought. "No? I'm not going to act like some poor, unfortunate kid! I'd rather don't have any money at all!" Keii snapped back, pouting a little. "Don't worry, I was just joking!" Layla laughed.

Hours passed by as it turned night. Keii decided to go sleep, while Layla kept watch over their ships, a broom in one hand to use as a weapon. Except for a few pesky gulls that wanted to steal their food supply, Layla's half of the night went well. She quietly woke up Keii, who groaned in protest. After a small discussion, Keii tiredly stood up and slipped into her jacket, standing outside after another small protest. The broom was resting on her shoulder as she stood tiredly on the deck, staring around, looking for something interesting. After a few hours, she suddenly heard a loud screech in the sky. As she looked up, she noticed a huge bird flying down to the gull that was sitting on the roof of Layla's boat. As it grabbed the seagull with amazing speed, it's claws dug in the roof. The large bird struggled for a while, before it's claws finally got loose, pieces of wood flying around. The bird screeched loudly again before flying off. Keii just stood there, watching the whole scene and her mouth dropped open in amazement. "Th-The hell.. Was that?" she stuttered to herself. It took her a few minutes to realise what was going on. A bird that huge? She was sure they didn't had animals that big on her island. She decided to forget what just happened, and tell Layla that it was just a pack of seagulls that were being annoying.

The next morning, the first thing Layla noticed when she woke up was the damaged roof of her ship. She shouted at Keii: "You were supposed to take watch, right? Then why is the roof messed up?" Keii just looked at her feet, mumbling: "A pack of birds. I was just too late to chase them away." Layla grumbled, taking another close look at the roof of her boat. "Did you killed those birds or something? There's blood everywhere." She said with a confused look on her face. "E-Ehm.. N-No! They ehm.. One was wounded! Yes!" Keii stuttered, looking the other way. Layla sighed, crossing her arms and leaned against a wall. "And now the truth? I really don't believe you." She said, staring emotionlessly at Keii. Keii sighed and it was silent for a while until she mumbled: "Fine.. It was some huge bird, almost 2 meters or something, that attacked a seagull on the roof. I thought you would escape from here if you knew!" Layla was quiet for a moment before she calmly said: "I wouldn't escape from a bird. It will take much more to scare me, Keii. You could've just told me." Keii smirked and said: "Hm.. Alright, then. So you don't care that it was bloody and extremely violent?" Layla shook her head, going back inside the bedroom. Keii stayed on the front of the deck, staring at the island in front of them. As it got closer and closer, the island became more visible through the mist. It had a giant mountain in the middle of it, but the peak was hidden in the clouds. The mountain was rather 'thin' and the rest of the island pretty flat. Overall, the island looked like some kind of thumbtack. Keii inspected the island with amazed eyes. She had never seen a mountain that big before! She was already excited for the new people, and possibly new crewmates, she would meet and invite at their new destination.


	4. Chapter 4

**~This new water world~**

**Ch. 4**

_A.n.: Sorry it's been a long time! My Microsoft office and computer were being annoying.. So Here's a new chapter! ^^ Do not own the OC's or One Piece._

As they came closer to the island, it got harder to keep sailing through the water. Their ships would occasionally hit some drifting ice, until they were completely stuck with a sea of ice in front of them. Keii and Layla both stood on the front of the ship, staring at the ice between their ships and the island. "We don't have a choice. If we have to sail until we come across another island, we'll starve for sure." Layla said, frowning slightly. "True. Maybe we can try to break through it? Only how." Keii said, thinking deeply. "Maybe we can use our abilities? I mean, I can try to cut the ice with my claws in my hybrid form, and you can cut through it with the water we have, right?" Layla suggested. Keii thought deeply for a moment. "Fine. We don't really have another choice, right?" Keii said, not too hopeful for the idea. Layla jumped into the ice, transforming into her hybrid, her hands transforming into large claws which were a bit bigger than her head, the lower part of her body were wolf legs and the upper part of her face was stretching out into a wolf snout with black fur. Her clearly visible green eyes looked rather scary together with the black fur. She grinned widely as she began to chop with her claws into the ice. Keii was a bit surprised at Layla's wolf-hybrid. She looked like a werewolf! While being a bit afraid of Layla, Keii's hands transformed into flowing water, which both grew into spikes. Keii started helping Layla with the ice, but remained on the boat just to be a bit safer.

As hours passed by, they created a small pathway in the ice. The start of their pathway already started to freeze back, so if they stopped now, the boat would be stuck in the ice forever. They were both tired, but stubbornly kept going. Layla's claws were starting to bleed because of the sharp, freezing ice. Keii was sweating like crazy, but used the sweat as an extra weapon to damage the ice by shooting them like bullets. As they finally reached the end of the ice, Layla quickly jumped back on the boat and transformed back into her human form, her hands bleeding and blue because of the temperature. She quickly ran inside the living room to fix her hands back up, or else she wouldn't be able to cook tonight. Keii, on the other hand, broke through the small part of the ice that was still left, and they drifted towards the shore. Keii's spike-hands quickly turned back into her normal hands, and she waited until the boats were close enough to the shore until she dropped the anchor in the water. After the boats were staying in place, she also went inside the living room to warm herself up and helped Layla with her wounded hands. "I'll never cut ice with my claws again. You know how cold that was?" Layla complained, wincing when Keii bandaged her hands up after they were warm again. Keii just laughed, smiling happily when she was finished with the bandages. "Done! And of course it was cold, idiot. It was ice! Did you expected it to be warm or something?" Keii said back with a smile. Layla just grumbled something in response and Keii laughed again.

After they were both warmed up, they suddenly realised something. They were at their first island. A strange island they've never seen before. They both decided to immediately check it out. After they both pulled on their winter jackets they went outside and looked at the shore of the island in amazement. It wasn't a beach, like they had on their own island. It was just a snow field. A few meters away, it went upwards and on top of the small hill was a small village, surrounded by trees. The village wasn't that big, as far as they could see. Just a few small tents, not even houses, made of fur. It looked beautiful together with the sunset on the background. They quickly ran up the hill and looked around. There wasn't anybody outside their tents. Some of them were closed and others had something in front of the entrance. It seemed like they were trying to keep something out. Layla and Keii silently stood there for a second. Suddenly, a small boy crossed the space between the two rows of tents. He was yelling something happily in a foreign language. Layla chuckled at the cute sight of the kid, but Keii noticed that an old woman ran after him, almost in tears as she looked into the sky in fear. Keii followed her gaze and looked into the sky with shock. She saw a huge bird circling above the village. When she wanted to warn Layla, the bird suddenly flew down in amazing speed in the direction of the little boy. The boy didn't seem to notice anything but the old mother was screaming in fear. Keii reacted quickly and her fingers turned into water spikes, which immediately froze at the temperature of the island and she shot them at the bird. It screeched loudly in pain and surprise when the spikes got it in its side. It quickly flew away in the direction of the mountain. The boy had turned around in surprise when he heard the bird screech and had fallen on the ground, on his back. The bird had been in so much panic, that it had scratched the little boy over his chest before it flew off. When Layla and Keii noticed that the boy had fallen and wasn't moving, they quickly rushed over to him. Layla carefully picked him up and rushed over to the tent where the old woman was still panicking. She said something in the foreign language again and she moved aside to let them in. Inside the big-looking tent were two beds, also made of fur and wool. Layla carefully placed the boy on one of the beds and moved aside. The woman quickly started to treat the boy's wound.

As the woman was busy treating the boy, Layla and Keii were sitting on the other bed, whispering to each other. Keii said: "Told you there was a bird! I wasn't crazy!" Layla frowned for a second before murmuring back: "Alright, alright.. Fine, I believe you. But how is it possible for a bird to get that huge?" Keii sighed before murmuring back: "How should I know? Do I look like a bird expert to you or some-" "Whispering with other people around isn't polite, you know" The elderly woman interrupted Keii. "Oh.. S-Sorry. We thought you only spoke your own language." Keii apologized. "Of course not, you child. Can't a village have two languages or something?" she said with a cranky tone in her voice. Keii and Layla remained silent, only glancing at each other every once in a while. Layla examined the woman for a moment. She looked around her 70's, was wearing a fur coat with a leather-like dress under it. She was short and had long, grey hair which she kept out of her face with a headband. She was wearing many necklaces, each looking very unique.

After the woman was done, she sat down on the end of the bed. Looking at both Keii and Layla, she eventually said: "What are you two foreigners doing here? It's not safe on this island. I recommend you both go back to where you came from." Keii and Layla both looked at each other in confusion. Layla asked: "But we want to know why that bird attacked the boy. We might be able to help out, because that bird looked way too big to just catch. Besides, we can't leave because we ran out of supplies." The woman sighed and stood up, leaning on a stick. "I noticed what you," she pointed at Keii with a slight smirk "did to the Cursed Owl. I'm glad you could manage to save Toshio, but I'm not sure if I can trust you yet. So that's why I think it's better to leave. This village doesn't like foreigners." 'Cursed Owl?' Layla thought 'Why would it be cursed?'. Layla looked at the ground and thought while Keii answered the woman "B-But.. You can trust us, ma'am! I'm Aoi D. Keii, and I'm the captain of the Mizu Pirates! And this is my first mate, Layla. I promise we are really reliable. What if we prove ourselves by catching the Cursed Owl?" Layla snapped out of her thoughts, feeling the urge to hit Keii on the head, but stopped when the woman answered. "The Cursed Owl? Catching? Are you crazy? That monster is uncatchable! We, in this village, have a reason not to go after that thing!" "Why is it so dangerous, then? " Keii said back in curiosity. The woman sighed and sat back down on the bed, chuckling a bit. "I guess I can't stop you two youngsters, eh? Well, I'll tell you about the legend of the Cursed Owl, then. First of all, you have to know we have our own religion in this village. We believe in a few different gods. The Stork of Life, The Eagle of Pride, The Crow of Death, The Chicken of Wealth and The Owl of Judgement. Each of them have a different temple in this village, as you might have seen. Each of the temples have a purpose. The temple of Life is a place where women give birth, so their child will be protected and healthy in their lives. The Temple of Pride is where the village leaders discuss the future of the village. The temple of Death is where we bury the ones who passed away. The temple of Wealth is where we store our food, so it can't get stolen under the watchful eye of the Chicken of Wealth. Last is the temple of judgement, where the court is. When somebody has been judged to death, they spend the night outside. They'll be prey for the Cursed Owl. But the temple of Judgement wasn't always like that. But that all started 12 years ago at the birth of a mysterious child."

The woman continued after a small silence: "I still remember it clearly. The temple had a fruit stored in it, which granted the temple power. They say that the fruit had been brought into the temple by a white owl. Some of them believe that this was the owl of Judgement, but that is nothing more than a myth. In those times, we lived in extreme poverty. There wasn't much food around, so most of the villagers starved to death and children were quite rare. So when the child was born in the temple of Life, there was a celebration. But everyone knew a baby wouldn't survive for long. The parents were desperate for food, because they're child didn't accept the normal milk of our cows. Oh no, this girl was very picky when it came to food. She'd only drink fruit milk. But the fruit eventually ran out, and the girl still wouldn't drink normal milk after a few days. The child was as thin as a needle! But, that's where the trouble started. The father became desperate and stole the mysterious fruit from the Temple of Judgement. Nobody knew that he had stolen the fruit, until fluff started to grow out of the child's arms, face and lower back. Everyone knew this was a curse. They wanted this child gone, before the curse became worse. And it became worse. There were all sorts of bad luck. The crops wouldn't grow, people died because of their diseases. The father got executed and the mother got sick because of the hunger. After nothing more than a week, the mother died. After the mother was buried they broke into the tent, searching for the cursed child. But they only found a fluffy baby owl of this size," She separated her hands to show how big the little owl was, which was around 50 centimetres. "in the bed where the baby was supposed to be. They knew that this was the curse of the Owl of Judgement, for eating it's holy fruit. The villagers wanted to kill the little owl, but it escaped. And eight years later, an owl of almost 1 meter returned. It kidnapped the few children we had, and they were never seen again. We believe that it was the cursed child, so we decided to call this owl the Cursed Owl. It has been roaming through our village for almost 4 years, and it flies over here to search for food." It was silent for a while, before Layla said: "That's.. A really interesting story, actually. I bet we can take on this owl, right Keii?" Keii nodded, smirking slightly. The woman sighed and said: "If you can get rid of this owl, we'll gladly help you get your supplies. It would mean a lot to us. It would already be good to wound it, because then we'll be able to catch it. If you want to know where the owl lives, you just have to climb up a few feet up the mountain until you reach a cave. We've seen it flying in there multiple times, so we guess it lives there." Layla nodded. "Yes, we'll go right now then!" The woman was a bit surprised at the sudden attitude, but just laughed a bit before saying "Yes, yes. Now go, until it's night."

"Why is this mountain so damn high! Can't that stupid owl live lower or something?" Keii complained, as she climbed up the mountain with difficulty. "Stop complaining, we'll get free supplies when we just wound this bird. It's an opportunity we can't miss!" Layla said, also climbing. After a few more meters of climbing they reached the cave. They looked around, noticing a pile of rotting bones in the corner, a bed made of leaves and a barrel of water with a small bucket next to it. In the corner sat a barely noticeable, little girl. She didn't notice them because she had her back towards them. As far as they could see, she had brown hair with blonde parts in them, a brown scarf, a brown shirt and a skirt. They couldn't see the rest of her, because she was hugging her knees. Also noticeable were the amazingly patterned tail feathers sprawled out on the ground. "E-Ehm.. Excuse me, do you know where the owl is?" Keii asked carefully. The girl turned around, her bright yellow eyes staring at Keii in fear. It didn't seem right for Layla. This girl had weird boots and.. Is that a bird-toe sticking out just above her heel? Layla also noticed that the girl was holding a clip with a pink flower on it. She also had light brown marks on her face, which looked like fluff. The girl looked at them for a second, before growling. She placed the flower on the ground and stood up, screeching loudly. "D-Did we said something wrong?" Layla asked carefully. The girl screeched again, before her nose and mouth transformed into a beak, her eyes got bigger and her arms transformed into wings. She grew larger and larger until only a yellow-eyed, 1 meter 80 church owl stood where the girl was. Keii stared at the bird for a moment. Before she could attack, the bird swung it's wing in her direction, a direct hit against her head which made her fly head-first into a wall. "K-Keii!" Layla yelled in panic. Keii just laid there motionlessly on the ground.


	5. Chapter 5

**~This new water world~**

**Ch. 5**

_A.n.: Long time again, eh? ._. I was just being a bit lazy XD Sorry, all! .w. And next chapter will be very late, because next week I'll be very busy with studying.. DO NOT OWN OP!_

"K-Keii!" Layla screamed as the large owl walked over to the still motionless Keii on the ground. The owl reached its wing back to hit Keii again, but the wing got blocked midway by a pair of huge claws. "I w-won't let you kill her, you over-sized chicken!" Layla yelled in her hybrid-form, blocking the attack. Meanwhile, Keii shakily tried to stand back up again but was too dizzy to actually stand. The owl screeched loudly and hopped backwards a few metres, but it suddenly flew straight at Layla, its beak stuck out like a sharp, straight claw. Before the dangerous beak could pierce through Layla, she jumped up and over the owl. She quickly lashed out with her claws, leaving a deep wound on the owl's back. The owl fell to the ground, screeching in pain. Layla changed back to her human form to help Keii. "Are you okay? Can you stand?" Layla asked worriedly. Keii nodded before standing back on her feet, frowning deeply. She glanced towards the barrel of water and said in a monotone voice: "You crazy bird bastard. How dare you to kill all those innocent people and children? Besides, you almost killed me. Do you think I'll let you get away with that?" She turned her hands into fists and the water from the barrel shot up like a tentacle. The water floated quickly towards the large bird, who was still half on the ground because it tried to get up again. Keii did a quick swing with her arm and the water scratched the bird deeply in its wing. It screeched in pain again and fell to the ground. Keii lost it and kept swinging with her arms around, every swing making the owl screech in pain because of the sharp water that shot through its wing. Layla quickly ran over to Keii and grabbed her wrists, yelling: "O-Oi! You don't have to kill it, you idiot! Pull yourself together! That old woman never said she wanted it dead! Remember, it's still just a little kid!" With those words, Keii stopped and the water floated into the air. She growled before fiercely swinging her arm again, the water cutting past the bird's wing one more time. The bird screeched loudly before passing out. A little, heavily wounded girl was lying on that same spot after a few moments. Keii panted and she swung her arm towards the wall, the small, floating water stream splashing apart on impact. Layla stepped forward to treat the little girl's wounds but Keii stopped her, whispering: "No. This girl can't be helped, you know. She has been a wild 'animal' ever since she was young, you heard that. If she wakes up while you're treating her, the risk of her attacking you is too high. I know it might be cruel, but we have no other choice than to leave her like this." Layla nodded understandable and Keii was silent, walking out of the cave with her head low.

Keii was sitting in the tent of the old woman, hugging her knees and staring in front of her, frowning deeply. After a few minutes, Layla walked in and said quietly: "Oi, I loaded the food supplies and a few weapons on the ship. These people here are really nice, you know" Keii nodded, but she seems to not even hear her. She kept seeing the wounded little girl in her head, and that somehow made her feel a bit guilty. A loud screech was suddenly heard outside, with a few men yelling: "Keep it down! Keep that monster restrained, you idiots! If it escapes, we'll all be dead! We're lucky that it's in a weak state right now!" Keii and Layla looked at each other confusedly and both walked outside, only to see a rather horrible sight. The girl they saw in the cave was tied up with a few ropes, dried up blood visible on her clothes and feathers. She was in some kind of hybrid form, which resembled a harpy. The girl was screeching in both fear and anger as 3 men had to keep her down with all their strength. Keii got washed over by a wave of guilt, and Layla just looked shocked at the whole scene in front of her. The girl got roughly dragged away to the Temple of Judgement. Keii and Layla decided to follow them, together with the rest of the village.

As the whole group of villagers, including Keii and Layla, were gathered inside the temple of judgement, the chief of the village was already sitting on a throne inside. He wore normal, leather clothes but was wearing a huge amount of jewellery. He had a few amazing necklaces, lots of bracelets and some kind of headdress in the shape of a flying owl with feathers sticking upwards. The 3 men they saw earlier, were holding the girl in place in front of the throne. But that wasn't a huge effort, because the girl gave up on struggling and just held her head low. Keii and Layla pushed themselves to the front of the crowd. Layla noticed that the girl was trembling in fear and weakness. But another thing that she noticed was the girl was firmly holding the pink flower clip they saw earlier between her teeth.

After the crowd went silent, the chief spoke in his low, heavy voice: "Everyone! We're gathered here to judge the monster who killed many villagers, stole a lot of food and ate the holy fruit: The Cursed Owl!" small whispers were heard from the crowd, and the girl looked around her in fear and confusion. After the whispering stopped the chief spoke again: "For this high crime there's only one thing we're capable of doing! Execution tomorrow morning at sunrise!" Cheers were heard after those words "Finally! We'll have a good harvest this season!" someone yelled. Keii held her head low, and Layla just stared in surprise at the chief. Keii gritted her teeth, the guilt rising up. After the people went back to their daily work, the girl roughly got pulled in a back room, supposedly a cage or prison. Keii and Layla were standing all alone in the temple after a while. Finally, Keii spoke: "D-Damn it. This is our fault isn't it? Should we do something?" Layla sighed, answering: "You said yourself that we can't do anything for her. She's a criminal, you know. She killed many innocents but," "But what? " Keii said "I.. Don't think she only did it to survive. I think it was more like some kind of revenge or defence." Layla said slowly. Keii thought about that for a second. The girl looked pretty scared before she attacked. Could it be revenge or defence? The defence at the cave would be pretty logical. Who wouldn't attack an intruder? As for the revenge.. Maybe for the execution of her father and the death of her mother? But how could she know about that if she was just a baby? All the questions started to confuse Keii even more. But there was one thing she was sure of, she wanted answers. And the only choice they had is to rescue that girl. Keii whispered slowly: "I think we should save her. She looked scared to death just a few minutes ago. I don't really believe that she is evil." Layla nodded, because she knew that this wouldn't be such a big problem. They already had their supplies and food, anyway. She transformed in her hybrid form and said: "Right now? There isn't anyone around here anymore, so" Keii nodded, her hand turning into water and into the shape of a sword. They both walked over to the door where the girl disappeared to. A quick swift with Layla's claw was enough to open the door.

As they walked inside, they noticed a few rows of cages. A few guards were laughing loudly at the end of the hall. They were looking inside the cage and Keii recognized the guards as the people who captured the girl. She growled before swiftly running over to them together with Layla. Layla was slightly faster and pounced. She landed on both of the guards with a loud growl. A few quick hits with the back of her claws was enough to make them pass out. Meanwhile, Keii looked through the cages and finally found the girl. Keii immediately felt the guilt rising up again at the sight of her. The girl was handcuffed and the handcuffs were made of sea stone, but were amazingly decorated with light blue paint. She was sitting in the corner, slowly whispering some shushes to herself. She rocked back and forward. The most horrifying was that the girl had even more wounds than before, even a few bruises. The bruises looked pretty fresh, so Keii assumed that the guards had their fun when the girl was in the cage. When Keii shaped her hand into a very sharp needle and started fiddling with the lock, the girl immediately turned around and stared at Keii in fear, the whispering turning into winces of pain and terror. She scuffled to the far back of the cage and Keii smiled as sweet as possible and softly whispered: "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you." When Keii finally opened up the cage, the girl winced in terror again. When Keii walked over to her, the girl panicked. She tensed when Keii placed a hand on her hand, ruffling through her hair with another sweet smile. "I'll get you out of here." Keii said softly. The girl was still tense, but looked more confused than scared. Keii thought it was the best to keep the handcuffs on for now, and changed her hand back to normal before carefully lifted the girl up bridal style. She tensed up even more, but didn't struggle because she was too tired of all the struggling she did before. Keii smiled a bit when the small girl rested her head against Keii's shoulder. The girl still kept her eyes wide open, though. Keii walked out of the cage again and chuckled a bit when she noticed Layla. She was standing on top of both of the guards, grinning in victory. "All done here!" Layla said, stepping off the guards and her grin turned into a smile when she noticed the girl in Keii's arms. "She looks pretty beaten up, doesn't she?" Layla said, and Keii nodded and said: "We need to get her out of here quickly. Some of the wounds are pretty deep, so.."

"Damn it! Damn it! Why was it such a good idea to go past here?" Layla yelled to Keii in her full wolf form, running from the angry townspeople behind them. "Get them in the name of the Owl of Judgement! They've got the Cursed Owl! Damn pirates!" a few yelled. Keii ran as fast as she could. The girl in Keii's arms already fell asleep along the way, so she didn't heard them. "Here, catch!" Keii grinned before carefully throwing the girl in Layla's direction. Layla quickly transformed into her hybrid form before catching the girl in her big claws. "Damn it, Keii! Stop being so reckless!" Layla yelled. Keii just grinned even wider and yelled back: "Sorry? But.. Just keep running to the ship and set sail as soon as you're there! I have an idea, don't worry!" Layla nodded before dashing off, and Keii stopped, facing the angry townspeople that ran towards her. She smirked and swung an arm in the air, which gathered the snow into a huge snowball (Snow is frozen water, after all). It formed a wall and it quickly froze into a thick ice wall. The townspeople bumped up the wall and some of them tried to get around it, but it was no use. Keii laughed loudly before dashing off towards the ship.

When Keii arrived at the ship, it already drifted off a bit. She jumped on the deck and ran inside the living room, where a few weapons were stored now and also two beds. The girl was lying on one of the beds, nicely covered up with a thick, blue blanket, sleeping like a rose. Layla sat on the end of the bed, a first aid kid next to her and she smiled brightly when Keii walked in. "Hey, you're back! I assume you did something to those people?" Keii nodded and said: "Of course. By the way, how is the girl doing?" Layla smiled even wider and said: "She's fine, just tired and cold!" Keii sat on a chair next to the head end of the bed. After a while she noticed something: "Wait.. Does she even has a name?" Layla frowned a bit before saying: "Not that I know. They all called her a criminal or the Cursed Owl, so.." Keii grinned widely before saying: "Hm.. Shall we give her a name then?" Layla smiled a bit before saying: "I guess that's a good idea. Know any names?" Keii's grin turned into a soft smile as she looked at the girl, who was still asleep. Keii had many names in her head, but one of them would be fitting because the girl lived on a snow island. Keii chuckled before whispering: "Yuki"


	6. Chapter 6

**~This new water world~**

**Ch. 6**

_A.n.: Hurr hurr~ I said that there wouldn't be a new chapter in a long time, right? Well.. I LIED .w. Do not own One Piece_

It was a calm morning on the ships of the Mizu Pirates. Layla was cooking breakfast and Keii stayed with their brand new crewmate Yuki. Yuki was still fast asleep, curled up under the blankets and hugging the pillow. Keii sighed, thinking about what happened at the island. She had so many things to ask. Loads of questions floating in her mind. Time ticked away and Keii got lost in her thoughts. What she didn't noticed was that Yuki's eyelids suddenly trembled. Two tired eyes slowly opened halfway, and a soft cry made Keii snap out of her thoughts. Yuki looked at Keii with two tired, but scared yellow eyes, obviously remembering what Keii did to her back on the island. Yuki's special eyecolour seemed to glow in the candle light. Keii smiled softly, carefully stroking over Yuki's head and whispered: "Don't worry. You're safe now. You're on our ship and we'll protect you, alright?" Yuki looked at Keii confusedly, a hoot-like sound escaping from her as she looked around the room. Keii chuckled and said: "Hey, are you deaf or something?" Again, Yuki looked at Keii in confusion, making a hoot-like sound again. Keii got more confused about her by the minute, but suddenly realised something. If she escaped from society when she was barely a year old, did she ever learned a language? She kind of learned some owl-like language, that's for sure. After a while of thinking for a way to communicate with her, she noticed a pile of paper and a pencil on the table. She took a piece of paper from the pile and a pencil, and drew a small boat, with a stick figure for her, and a stick figure with owl-like features for Yuki. She handed the paper to the confused Yuki. She looked at the drawing for a while before gazing around her in amazement, a smile on her face. But that smile turned into worry and she started drawing herself. As Keii got the paper, she looked at Yuki's drawing. It were a few houses, a big mountain with a hole and a flowerclip. Keii looked at the table and picked up the flower clip that was there. "This?" Keii carefully said, and gave the clip to Yuki. Yuki's worried smile turned into a glad one. She kind of hugged the clip, as if it were a doll. Keii chuckled a bit, before drawing a few people from the village in stick figure form, including Yuki and an arrow to a new drawing, which was a cheering crowd and the chief who stabbed a sword through Yuki's stick figure. She crossed out the arrow and drew a new arrow to another drawing, which showed Keii carrying Yuki and Layla running next to them, all getting chased by an angry mob. She gave the sheet to Yuki, and she looked at the drawing for a long while, before widening her eyes in shock and confusion. Yuki started drawing again and gave the sheet back to Keii. The new drawing showed a rather crappily drawn owl face, which showed confusion. Keii sighed and drew an attacking owl that had dead, little stick figures in it's claws and slightly bigger ones which were chasing the owl with weapons. Keii gave the sheet to Yuki, and she looked rather understandable. But she started drawing again, and when Keii got the sheet back, the new drawing was a very skinny, dead owl. Keii knew that would be the case, and she drew a mouse, dove and a gull. When Yuki got the sheet back, she immediately started drawing again, and when Keii got the sheet back, she noticed that the birds she drew earlier were crossed out, and a few vicious-looking, other kinds of predator birds were drawn, and a pretty much beaten up owl next to them. Keii nodded understandable and smiled sweetly before flipping the sheet over, drawing a happy Keii, Yuki and Layla stick figure, all together on a boat. When Yuki got the paper again, she smiled and looked at Keii in pure happiness. She looked at the flower, and re-drew something. When Keii got the paper back, she noticed that Yuki drew a heart. Yuki carefully gave the flower clip to Keii and pointed to a beautiful decorated heart on the back of a petal. Keii smiled and nodded, giving the flower clip back and drew a happy smiley on the paper, giving it to Yuki. Yuki grinned happily and hooted in joy, pulling Keii in a tight hug. Keii unsurely hugged back, not really used to people hugging her. When Yuki let go she sat down on the bed. She shook her hair out for a moment and transformed in her hybrid, grooming her feathers. Keii looked at her other form in amazement. The feathers had a beautiful pattern, and her sharp, jetblack nails seemed to shine. She looked very healthy if you thought her wounds, bruises and scratches away. When Yuki was done, she transformed back to her human form and looked a bit helplessly at Keii. Yuki quickly grabbed the piece of paper and drew a stick figure which was kind of talking. Keii just smiled and said: "Oh.. You want to learn how to speak? Well.. Let's start with the basics, then!"

Layla was calmly making breakfast: A few sandwiches, not something special. But the calmth of the room suddenly broke when the door slammed open. Layla quickly turned around in surprise, an over-happy Yuki and a proud looking Keii were standing in the doorway. Yuki ran over to Layla and grabbed her hand. Yuki turned her head towards Keii for a second, who gave a slight nod. Yuki coughed and said with her high-pitched, innocent voice: "H-Hello! I am Yuki, wh-who are y-you.. Eh.. S-Sir?" Yuki quickly turned her head to Keii, who shook her head with a sheepish smile. Yuki quickly corrected: "Oh! Wh-Who are you, madam?" Layla just looked at Yuki in surprise, but smiled at her and answered: "Hello, Yuki! I'm Layla. Nice to meet you!" Yuki's eyes pretty much went wide in happiness and she pulled Layla in a hug and yelled: "Layla-kun!" Layla and Keii both looked at eachother and laughed. When Yuki was done hugging, they all sat down near the table to eat. Yuki looked at the sandwich for a long while before smelling the meat that was on it, and she ate it like it was a mouse that she just caught. Keii chuckled at the sight and Layla said: "I see she's recovered? And why did she spoke so dodgy to me, by the way?" Keii laughed for a moment before answering: "Isn't that both obvious? Yes, I think she recovered and she spoke so dodgy because we can only communicate with drawing, because she has been living in the wild before she could learn a proper language. So that's why I decided to teach her one, so we can at least talk to her without getting a sheet of paper. By the way, she just learned how to introduce herself.. She's a very quick learner, you know!" Layla frowned for a moment, but nodded understandable before saying: "Right. I see. But why did she called me Layla-kun?" Keii bursted out in laughing before saying: "Because I called her Yuki-kun once, just for fun but she thought you were supposed to put that behind every name! She calls me Keii-kun too, you know.." Layla also laughed and they all continued with their breakfasts.

After they were done, Keii went to sleep because she was awake all night to guard Yuki. Layla decided to fish and Yuki sat on top of the flag in her owl form, just watching over the sea. Yuki frowned when she noticed a rather amazingly big cloud pass by. She hooted loudly, which made Layla look up and she also stared at the cloud. The cloud slowly passed over them and when it passed, Layla continued fishing. Yuki boredly looked around, when she noticed a black dot in the sky. She stared at the dot which was getting bigger and bigger. The dot turned from black to white with a decreasing pink ring around it. Yuki hooted loudly again, and Layla grumbled and walked over to the mast, yelling to her: "The hell is wrong now? You can't warn for every little thing you see, you know!" Yuki hooted again and pointed with her wing to the dot. Layla followed the direction and also noticed the dot. She ran to the kitchen and quickly grabbed a pair of binoculars. As she went back to the deck, she looked at the dot through the binoculars. Suddenly, she dropped them on the ground and blushed deeply, suddenly yelling loudly: "P-Pervert! A p-pervert falling f-from the sky!" After a while, Keii stepped out of the bedroom in her nightclothes, tiredly whiping the sleep out of her eyes and said: "Did you just yelled pervert?" Layla nodded and gave Keii the binoculars, pointing at the dot in the sky. Keii looked through the binoculars for a while and she suddenly whistled: "Phew! Pretty well-shaped down there for a pervert, though!" Layla blushed even deeper and snatched the binoculars away from Keii, yelling: "Idiot! That's not a g-good thing!" Keii just laughed and said: "What? It's the truth you know!" Layla sighed and looked up when Yuki landed next to them, changing to her human form. Keii was still looking up and suddenly noticed that the dot suddenly got bigger very fast. After a long while, a boy slammed on the deck, with a loud yelp, a pink squid clenched in his hands. The boy had messy, dark brown hair and a ponytail, but that ponytail existed out of 'globes on sticks'. A very noticable thing were the small wings on his back, one of them severly damaged. The boy was wearing a white robe with several belts, full of medical supplies and a few bags. The boy groaned in pain and his legs were facing Keii, Yuki and Layla. They could cleadly look under the boy's robe and he had a lack of underwear. Layla blushed heavily, Keii looked in amazement and Yuki looked in curiousity. The boy carefully stood up and looked around him, still facing away from the others and said: "No land? A boat..? Where the hell am I.." He turned around, revealing his big, young-looking eyes and sheepish smile. He suddenly noticed the faces of the rest and laughed: "Oh! I'm sorry for the rude introduction! I a-" But he suddenly got cut off by a smiling Yuki, who grabbed his hand and said: "H-Hello! I am Yuki, who a-are you, s-sir?" Layla automaticly facepalmed and Keii just smiled awkwardly. The boy answered Yuki politely: "Good afternoon! I'm Eri, nice to meet you." Yuki just squealed in happiness and laughed: "Eri-kun!" Eri awkwardly smiled back, and Keii said: "Excuse her, Eri. She ehm.. She's still learning the language. But welcome on the ship of the Mizu Pirates! I'm the captain, Aoi D. Keii. She is.. " Keii pointed at Layla "my first mate and cook Layla. And Yuki is our nightguard and observer." Eri tensed up at the word 'Mizu' and shakily said "M-Mizu pirates? As in w-water? Wh-Why water?" Keii tilted her head in confusion and answered by turning her hand into a flowing water tentacle before saying: "I ate the Mizu Mizu no mi. I can manipulate sweet water and turn my body into water. Hey, you look a bit pale." Eri actually looked very pale before hazily saying: "I.. I'm scared for w-water..!" With those words, Keii quickly shaped her hand back to normal and said: "Oh! Sorry! I didn't knew!" "Meh, it's f-fine.." Eri coughed a few times to get rid of the haziness. Layla finally spoke up and asked: "Wh-Why did you fell from the sky? What is th-that squid? Why aren't you wearing u-underwear?" Eri smiled sheepishly and said: "Oi! Calm down a bit first, alright? And I guess I'll just give a proper introduction.. I'm Eri from Skypiea. I'm 17 years old and an apprentice doctor. I have a fear for water, as you already noticed. And I got banished from Skypiea because ehm.. I kind of accidentally destroyed the house of the rulers of Skypiea.. With this.." He searched around his belt for a while and pulled out a blue yoyo, only with a thicker rope. "It's called a dialyo. I made it myself for protection. Only someone stole it and burned that house down, blaming it all on me.. But I didn't have any proof that it wasn't me, so they dropped me from the cloud with this balloon squid." He showed them all the squid, but when Yuki got it she licked her lips before quickly turning into her owl form, snatching the squid away and quickly ate it. "Yuki! Idiot, don't just eat everyone's stuff!" Keii yelled before turning to a very surprised Eri. "S-Sorry for the surprise.. She also ate a devil's fruit.. But I don't know exactly which.. But go on with your story." Eri coughed a few times before continuing: "As I w-was saying.. They threw me off the cloud with the balloon squid but it was empty too quickly, so I pretty much got lucky that you guys sailed by!" Keii smiled politely and holded out her hand "So.. If you're a criminal too.. How about joining our crew as our doctor? You don't have anywhere to go, anyway!" Eri thought about it for a second. It could be handy to stick around. Besides, with the foreign countries they would visit, he could touch up his medical skills. "Hm.. I don't have a choice, eh? Fine, I'll stay with you for a while." He grabbed Keii's hand firmly and shook it with a grin. Layla interrupted them and said: "How about showing off that Dialyo of yours? It looks interesting.." Eri laughed and pulled out the Dialyo, explaining: "The Dialyo is made from a simple yoyo but with an extra thick cord. It is controlled by a complicated system made out of small dials. Dials are shells which can be powered with all kinds of things. Fire, voice, thunder, air.. All kinds of things! The Dialyo has a few dials in it, a fire, thunder, air and smoke dial. You control it with a series of specific swings. Also, the Dialyo is armed with sharp blades" Eri pressed on a button on the middle of the Dialyo, 4 sharp blades shooting out "for extra damage or for when the dials run out of power." He smiled when he was finished with explaining and Keii and Layla nodded understandable, but Yuki ofcourse didn't understand a word from it and was still eating the squid. "So.." Eri said with a cute smile, swinging the Dialyo around "Who wants to battle me?"


	7. Chapter 7

**~This new water world~**

**Ch.7**

_A.n.: The mighty power of Microsoft Word on your phone increases chapter writing speed.. MY MATH, PEOPLE! .w. Do not own OP -_

"So, who wants to battle me?" Eri said, grinning a bit evilly as he looked each of them straight in the eyes, but stopped at Yuki. She started to panic a bit and her innocent appearance drastically changed to an unstable, shy and scared one. Layla and Keii looked at each other questionably. What was wrong with Yuki all of the sudden? Eri raised an eyebrow and kept staring at her. He wasn't blinking and Yuki kept looking away, as if she tried to avoid something. Eri raised an eyebrow and Yuki flinched, taking a step back but quickly recovered, looking back at him with a glare. "Seems like I found a good opponent, hm?" Eri said. Keii didn't trusted the tone in his voice and she looked at Layla for a second, who frowned worriedly. "Mind if I teach her some manners?" Eri said and looked over at Keii, but his gaze turned a lot friendlier once he looked at her. "Wait a minute, she's wounded from an earlier fight. That still isn't recovered!" Keii protested. Eri chuckled and said: "Oh, don't worry, Keii. I bet she'll do fine." Keii sighed and thought for a few seconds. She eventually gave in and said: "Fine, fine. But if she's too badly injured, I'll throw you in the sea!" Eri only laughed and turned his attention back at Yuki, who seemed to have turned from a cute, innocent little girl to an enraged predator who could attack at any moment. 'What could anger her all of the sudden?' Keii thought to herself. She took a few steps backwards and carefully pulled Layla along, who still frowned worriedly and whispered to Layla: "Oi, do you think that this is a good idea? Yuki is still hurt from before, and Eri is injured from his fall." Keii smirked slightly and whispered back: "Then, they have their chance to prove themselves as trustworthy nakama. I mean, you can't rely on someone who backs out of a fight only because he or she is scared for more injuries. I don't want a crew of cowards."

As Keii and Layla were at the sides, Yuki and Eri just glared at each other, waiting until one of them breaks. After a long silence, a loud, bone-chilling screech from Yuki was heard as she was transformed in her owl form in a matter of seconds. She looked very annoyed and enraged of something. Eri just stood there, spinning his Dialyo around and smirked like a madman. He didn't even bother to cover his ears, even though Yuki was very close. Yuki flew up high and stayed there, letting out a few provoking screeches every once in a while. Eri didn't moved a muscle, and just watched in amusement as the bird got more annoyed and enraged by the minute. He knew exactly what was wrong, he tried it so many times and it always seemed to work. Yuki got sick of it and suddenly dove down, flying straight at him with her beak sticking out with incredible speed. Eri dodged her with difficulty and yelled: "A bit too slow! Thunder Dial!" A controlled sweep was all that was needed to make the blades of the Dialyo spark with electricity. In another swift movement, the Dialyo launched off towards Yuki, who was already trying to fly up again. A loud screech was heard when the blades dug in her back. Yuki was surprised, because she couldn't understand the explanation he gave earlier. She had no idea what this strange device was or what it was capable of. She tried to pull the small, but deadly thing out of her back, but that was difficult in mid air. "Thunder jolt!" yelled Eri, his smirk turning into a grin as he swiftly made another move with the thick rope of the Dialyo. A thunder-like sound was hurt and a loud scream in pain. Yuki was paralyzed because of the electricity, and crashed on the deck in her human form. Keii wanted to go help her, but got stopped by Layla who whispered: "You said it yourself; Let them fight it out. Besides, it's not over yet." Layla was right. Yuki stood on her feet again, but small sparks still jumped from the tips of her hair and clothes. Yuki smirked as she whiped the bit of blood away from her mouth with her wrist. Eri laughed and had already pulled his Dialyo back, which was spinning rapidly already. He yelled: "Not as weak as I thought, bird-brain!" Yuki changed into her hybrid-form, and flew up a bit again. Eri chuckled and said: "Are you going to try the same thing again? Won t work, you know!" He was readying himself to attack again, and Yuki flew at him with more speed than before. Eri dodged it with difficulty, but never expected that Yuki would turn in mid-air. She dug her claws in his back, but he didn't made any sound. He was gritting his teeth in pain, not wanting to give her the fun to hear him scream. As Yuki flew up a few metres in the air, she sped up again towards the outside wall of the living- and bedroom. She suddenly let him go and he crashed into the sturdy wall. Yuki landed on the deck and hooted victoriously. But it was too early to celebrate, because Eri stood up again, but it took him a lot of effort. He ignored the blood that trickled out of his nose and mouth and said: "A-Also faster than I thought. Pretty good hit, t-too.." He chuckled and his Dialyo was spinning rapidly again. He suddenly yelled with a wicked grin: "Flame storm!" And swiftly made two movements with the rope. A large amount of air suddenly escaped from the Dialyo and not a moment later a flame got out from the other side. The two mixed in a matter of seconds and a bright, white flash of fire was seen. Yuki's eyes widened in shock as the spinning fire flash hurled towards her.

When the bright light was gone, Yuki had slammed into the mast of the boat, her once beautiful feathers were laying scorched on the ground. Her skin had turned slightly black because of the ashes from her burned feathers. She panted heavily and a few feet away, Eri grinned victoriously. He already walked towards the kitchen and said: "Seems like this is over, do you guys have anything to eat around he-" He got interrupted by a terrifying screech. He turned around, seeing that Yuki stood up again. Her eyes were wide open and her pupils were as small as needle tips, which made her yellow eyes look very intimidating together with the scorched skin. Yuki screeched again as she stared straight at a very surprised Eri. Yuki transformed in her owl form, only it looked terrifying, as if she was on her last resort. The owl was terribly skinny and a few bald spots were visible. Her eyes were pupil less and almost fully yellow. The before healthy-looking claws were all crooked and looked like they hadn't been taken care of for many years. But the thing that was the most visible was the slight yellow glow that was around her. In a split second she stood in front of a stunned Eri. She reached back with her wing and slammed it on his shoulder, sending him flying into the wall again. But she didn't gave him any time to react and launched at him and hitted him with her wing again. He flinched and Yuki kept hitting him with her wings. After a while, she started to shrink back again and slowly changed in her human form, the strong hits with her wing were only weak punches in his face. The punches eventually stopped and Yuki fell on her back, panting heavily. Eri had a few wounds on his face, neck and arms with some bruises. He was also panting but didn't passed out. Yuki sat up after a while and sat next to Eri against the wall. They looked at each other before both bursting out in laughing. Eri said between his laughs: "Seems like both of us won, right?" Yuki hooted in approval, a big grin on her face.

Meanwhile, at the sides, Keii and Layla had looked at the whole fight in surprise. How the hell could they still laugh with their injuries? How the hell is that Dialyo powered? What the hell was wrong with Yuki's owl form all of the sudden? Those were several questions that were shooting through Keii's head. She looked at Layla who also seemed to be very surprised about the whole scene. She slowly said: "Well, at least they have battle skills, but.. Are you sure those two are 'normal'?" Keii slowly grinned, responding: "Nope! But we aren't, either! So that's why they're in the crew, idiot!" Layla couldn't help but chuckle at Keii's response. As expected from her captain. When the laughing from the two worn out fighters suddenly stopped, they decided to take a look and glanced around the corner. An awkwardly smiling Eri greeted them. He made a gesture to stay quiet and pointed to Yuki, who pretty much fell asleep as she rested her head on Eri's shoulder. Keii chuckled and whispered: "Well, seems like Yuki likes you already. Shall we go treat the wounds of both of you with a few meals, then?" Layla had already sneaked to the kitchen and Eri nodded in approval.

Meanwhile, on an island a bit further away from the crew, someone watched from a tree at the big flash that had appeared. The pair of eyes had turned wide in shock, the voice of the person whispering: "Visitors, eh? Better go warn the rest." The person jumped from the tree on the ground, a sword clutched tightly in the person's hand as the mysterious figure walked towards the hills.


	8. Chapter 8

**~This new water world~**

**Ch. 8**

_A.n.: I can write chapters at school now too.. Yay! .w. Do not own OP_

The Mizu pirate crew were eating all together in the living room. Yuki was awake again and was happily eating from her meal. Eri, Keii and Layla were chatting happily about all sorts of things. But Eri talked the most, because Keii and Layla were very curious about Skypiea. But after it went silent, because Eri almost told everything already, Layla curiously asked: "By the way, how were you able to enrage Yuki so easily?" Eri laughed and answered: "That's pretty simple. You see, up in Skypiea, my dad was a huge fan of all kinds of birds. He had a huge, closed off area for carnivorous birds and another one for herbivorous birds. Somehow, they seemed to be very happy with Skypiea's climate. But, the most amazing thing about my dad is that his family passed on a certain skill. His whole family had a passion for birds and they somehow developed a skill to understand them. My father told me that his ancestors started with the skills simply, by guessing the bird's movements and moods. But in those hundreds of years, his family had developed the skill into a mental connection. Kind of telepathic, you know? So, as a member of the family, that skill also passed over to me. So that's how I can communicate with Yuki, because she's partly bird herself. I just provoked her a little, nothing much. I just kept talking and talking, and she got enough of it and turned mad. Simple, right?" Keii looked at him in amazement and said: "That's really a useful skill, because she can't speak a language yet. Until that time, mind 'translating' some stuff that she says?" Eri nodded, grinning widely.

After they were all done with their meals, they went back to work. Eri just decided to take a nap in the bedroom. Keii was also tired because of the rough awakening and also went back to bed. Layla continued fishing as if nothing happened, and Yuki sat on top of the mast in her owl form, grooming her feathers. Layla caught a few fishes and brought them to the kitchen. But when she wanted to put her fishing supplies back, she noticed that the ships were heading towards an island. She quickly swapped the fishing supplies for binoculars and looked at the island in the distance. It had a pretty big harbor, where a few big ships were docked. It looked like a pleasant island with a nice climate. The land went further up in the distance, forming a few hills. Layla smirked, thinking it was good to finally find land. Their supplies were shrinking rapidly, and the ships were also getting too small if they wanted to further expand their crew. Layla sighed, because she knew they wouldn't be able to afford a new ship. Hell, they couldn't even afford any food! Layla walked back to the front deck to warn Keii, who was awake again and outside. Layla walked over to Keii and said: "Oi, captain! There's an island in the distance" Keii happily turned around and cheered: "Finally! When will we get there?" Layla smiled sheepishly and said: "I guess in an hour or so?" This made Keii cheer even more, and she hugged Layla tightly. "Keep me alive, please!" Layla protested and carefully pushed an over-happy Keii away. Keii laughed and ran to the bedroom to wake Eri up.

An hour passed and the ships were docked near a small beach. The crew stepped on the beach and walked together to the village near the docks. Layla and Eri were happily chatting and laughing, while Keii tried to teach Yuki some new stuff along the way, just so she could find the ships back in case she got lost. They arrived at the nicely crowded village, looking around at the many different shops. Keii suggested to check out the areas around the crowded street, so they could find some free stuff, perhaps. But because Yuki couldn't understand a word of what Keii was saying, she got distracted. She noticed a shady looking, little boy who was running away from something. Yuki got curious and sneaked away from the rest, following the boy.

Keii, Layla and Eri were walking through a calm neighborhood. Layla suddenly stood still and said: "Hold on. Am I just stupid or do we miss someone?" They all looked around for a moment, before Keii yelled: "Y-Yuki! Where is she?" A sudden crash was heard from back at the shopping district. The three ran towards the sound of the crash, Keii saying: "If she is causing trouble.." As they arrived at the scene, they noticed a boy, who had a wooden sword clutched tightly in his hands and was trembling, sitting on the ground near a fallen bookcase. Near the boy was a confused Yuki, who had stretched her arm out towards the kid to greet him. Keii thought that the boy got scared by Yuki's appearance, because she still had a few bandages and her tail feathers were also still scorched. The boy might've fallen backwards in surprise against a bookcase, what would explain the crash they heard. The boy yelled: "D-Don't come any closer, you freak! Or I'll tell my big s-sister about you!" Yuki seemed to be more confused by the aggressive behavior of the boy, and stepped back a bit. When Eri, Keii and Layla arrived at the scene, Eri trying to explain the situation to Yuki while Keii said to the boy: "Sorry if she scared you, kid. She won t hurt you, really." The boy panicked even more and said: "L-Leave me alone! I have t-to go back home!" Keii thought for a moment before saying: "How about we bring you home? Much safer, eh?" The boy was silent before lowering his sword and whispered: "F-Fine... But my big sister will get mad at y-you all!" Keii laughed at his response. Kids trusted others so easily. The boy stood up and continued walking, the sword resting on his shoulder and a bag clutched in one hand. Keii and her crew followed him silently. She whispered to her crew out of hearing distance from the boy that they might get a reward for this, so they could buy food. They walked inside a forest, following an old path which lead to a rather big, but not really rich, wooden house with a sign that said 'Orphanage'. They walked to the front door and the boy yelled: "Big sister! I'm home!" A few minutes later, the door swung open and a girl stood there, leaning against the wall. She had blonde hair with a few strange, green streaks through it. She was wearing a black top and a black skirt, decorated with a few belts and black gloves. Two sheathed swords were hanging from a belt on each of her sides and she glared at Keii and her crew, mumbling: "Welcome back, I see you brought visitors."


	9. Chapter 9

**~This New Water World~**

**Ch. 9**

"Well? Didn't I asked you somethin'?" The girl said, crossing her arms with a slight glare. The boy who guided them here was hugging the girl's leg tightly, also glaring a bit. They obviously weren't really welcome here. Keii carefully said: "We ehm.. Only brought this kid back, that's all. We thought it would be too dangerous if he went here all by himself. Besides, we owed him something because one of my crewmates scared him.. B-But not on purpose! He might got scared because she's wounded." The girl kept glaring, carefully pushing the boy back inside the building with one hand without moving her glare away from Keii and the rest. Once the kid was inside, she placed a hand on one of her swords, slowly saying: "I wont forgive anyone who scares my little brothers and sisters. I don't care if it was on purpose or not, it's still unforgivable." She quickly pulled her sword out, yelling: "Now, get out of here! Tornado rampage!" A strong, quick slice with her sword was enough to whip up a rather big tornado. Keii stood there, shocked, just like Eri and Yuki. But Layla didn't had to think twice and protectively stood in front of the rest, her arms spread wide. She wanted to transform in her hybrid, but her eyes widened in shock when she couldn't. Keii watched in horror as Layla took the full blow of the tornado and got launched in the air. She turned to Yuki to command her to save Layla, but she was already transformed in her owl form and shot into the air, after Layla. Eri stepped forward, yelling at the girl: "What was that for, you idiot! You could've killed her!" The girl just rolled with her eyes, carelessly responding: "Do you really think THAT could kill her? Then she must be really weak." Keii's mind snapped and she transformed her arm in a quick water stream tentacle, ready to attack her but Eri pulled his arm out in front of Keii, looking seriously at her for a few seconds before saying: "Don't waste your energy. Come on, let's just go and see how Layla is doing." Keii switched looks between Eri and the girl, before sighing deeply, her hand changing back. Eri placed his arm around her shoulders, guiding his shocked captain away, shooting a quick glare at the girl.

"Will you be okay?" Keii asked, looking at Layla who was lying in her bed, pouting a bit but she couldn't move her arms, because Eri was busy treating them. Her hair was a big mess, but Yuki was already trying to comb it with her claws in her hybrid form. "Yeah. That hit was nothing! It just.. Surprised me a bit. But I was flying, though! That was pretty awesome. Only bad thing is that my arms are full of little cuts and my hair is almost like a bird's nest!" Keii could barely keep in her laughing at the sight of her first mate, but she was glad that Layla didn't had any serious injuries. Layla looked away from Keii, frowning a bit before saying: "But the weirdest thing was that I wasn't able to change into my hybrid form." Eri looked up when she said that and said back: "Maybe it was because you were in a bit of a stressful situation?" Layla looked at Eri and said: "No. I transformed in more stressful situations before. Like when Yuki wasn't part of our crew yet and tried to kill Keii. I could easily tranform!" Eri frowned, before saying: "Must've been something from that girl, then. I don't know anything else that could be it, so.." Layla looked away again, sighing again. Keii said after a while: "Speaking about that girl, why would she be so protective over those kids? It was an orphanage, right? So it can't be possible that all those kids inside that house were all siblings of her." Layla nodded, saying: "True, true. But we can't just go and ask her why! She knows who we are now. We need some sort of diguise plan." There was a very long silence, before a huge grin formed on Keii and Layla's faces. They slowly looked at Eri, who questionably looked up from the bandaging of Layla's arm. "What? Do I have something on my face?" He said, frowning confusedly.

"One day, I'm really going to kill all three of you. You'll all be sorry for this. Did I joined this crew for this?" Eri grumpily said. Keii was rolling over the floor, laughing loudly. Layla was giggling like crazy while putting away the make-up and hair products and Yuki was cleaning her claws from hair and shaving cream with a huge smirk. Keii hiccuped between her laughing: "Y-You actually.. Look like a legit girl!" Eri grumbled even more, a slight blush of shame on his face. He was wearing one of Keii's blue dresses, decorated with frills and a few glitters. He was also wearing cute, girly shoes from Layla. His ball-shaped ponytails were pulled up in two pigtails. Layla had putted a bit of make-up on him, Keii had taken care of his clothes and Yuki had shaved his legs, face and arms with her claws. He was rather short for his age, so he looked like a 9-year-old. Keii stopped laughing after a while and said while still grinning widely: "Alright, still remember the plan?" Eri just nodded, crossing his arms. "Good! Now go, ehm.. Blow them away?" Keii said. Layla snorted a bit but Eri just facepalmed. He picked up the letter from the table, walking through the door and waved with a smirk. "See you in two days, then."

Eri was climbing up the mountain towards the orphanage. He was still confused about why he ever agreed to something like this. When he arrived tiredly after a while, he knocked on the door, quickly pinching himself tightly in his arm. Tears formed in his eyes and he stopped pinching. The door opened and the same girl stood there. Only this time, she sighed in disappointment before kneeling down a bit, smiling sweetly. Eri looked at her with his teary eyes, staying quiet while holding the fake letter in front of the lower part of his face. The girl said: "What are you doing here, little girl? Are you lost?" Eri shook his head rapidly, handing her the letter while looking away. His shy act seemed to work perfectly, because once the girl read the letter, she stepped away from the door to let him in, sweetly saying: "It'll be alright now. You'll get enough food here, don't worry. Nobody will hurt you anymore, either." Eri slowly walked inside, looking around the big room. The floor was made of bamboo, the walls of light-coloured wood and the back of the room had a few large windows. The walls were decorated with drawings, lists, crafts and pictures. There were four doors in the back. Eri guessed that would be the kitchen, bedroom, back door and bathroom. There were around 15 children playing in the room. They weren't loud, but not quiet either. It gave a perfect atmosphere of safety and happiness. The girl walked to the middle of the room, gesturing Eri to come with here. Eri sat on the ground and the other kids gathered around him and the girl, who was sitting on her knees next to him. The kids looked curiously at Eri, and the girl said after a while: "Everyone, we have a new little sister. Treat her nicely, like everyone else! She had to suffer the same life as you before you all arrived here. Tell me, little sis', what's your name?" Eri looked away for a moment, rubbing over the back of his head before whispering: "E-Erin.." The girl smiled and softly said back: "Alright, little sis' Erin. My name is Destiney, but you can always call me big sis'." Eri smiled happily. After a while of talking, all the kids went back to playing. Eri joined the rest, just to keep up his act, even though he was very embarassed.

Meanwhile, outside the orphanage, a bandit was looking at the whole seen through the bushes. A big, dirty grin formed on his face and he said to himself: "She finally has a new kid to care for, eh?" The thief ran away towards the abandoned temple. He ran inside and through some hidden paths. Finally, he arrived in a room. It was a large, round room with a stone throne in the back, decorated with hides from different animals. The bandit ran to the throne, kneeling in front of it. On the throne, a girl looked up from cleaning her claws. The bandit said shakily: "M-Misstress Rena.. Destiney has a n-new child to care for." The girl on the chair purred, a sharp-toothed smirk on her face and her bright, green eyes half-closed, her tail swinging in excitement. "Let's pay her a little visit, then. She still owes me something, mrrow~."


	10. Chapter 10

**This New Water World**

**Ch. 10**

_A.n.: This chapter.. I lost it once, had to rewrite it, but it was suddenly WAY longer XD So, enjoy the XXL chapter 10 -w- Do not own OP and some of the OC's, I only own Yuki and own Eri partly_**  
**

Eri was keeping his act up nicely. He played innocently with other kids, made a few friends. Only, he didn't had the energy of a child, so he rested against the wall after a couple of hours. He stared at the rest of the kids, who somehow still seemed full of energy. It somehow amazed him. But he still wanted to get out of here quickly. He felt embarrassed as hell in this dress. His wings also started hurting a bit, because they were tightly strapped up under his dress. He got a bit lost in his thoughts when he was plotting something to get revenge, so he didn't noticed a little girl who walked up to him. She had blonde hair, tied back in a ponytail and wore a red dress with yellow stripes and black sandals. The odd thing about her was that one eye was almost white and the other was blue. The girl stood there for a while, scuffling a bit with her feet and looking down at the floor. "E-Excuse me... The girl said with a shy voice. Eri snapped out of his thoughts, looking up at the shy girl and smiled, even though her eye scared him a bit, saying: "Hia, need something?" The girl suddenly sat next to him and responded: "Well, you were sitting here all by yourself. S-So I thought you wanted a bit of company." Eri kept smiling and said: "Well, thank you, I guess? What's your name?" The girl looked up at Eri, answering: "L-Lilly! Nice to m-meet you, Erin." "Nice to meet you too, Lilly!" Eri said back. There was an awkward silence, before Lilly said: "You're so m-mature, you know. Might sound a bit creepy, but I kind of w-watched how you played with the others and you almost play with them like big sister would!" Eri's mind panicked slightly. Did someone discovered him already? He had to think of something quickly and said: "Well... You're very smart for noticing that, you know." Lilly smiled brightly. "R-Really? Thank you!" She said back. "No problem." Eri said, still smiling sweetly, but his mind sighed in relief. "Haven't you noticed?" She said of nowhere, her smile gone. Eri was a bit confused. "Noticed what?" Lilly sighed, answering: "My blind eye." Eri nodded slowly, thinking about the right words to say. After a while, he finally said: "Of course I noticed. But I don't mind about it." Lilly was slightly shocked, slowly whispering: "The others think I'm scary. Only big sister plays with me every once in a while so I won t be lonely." Eri felt sorry for her. Kids can be really simple-minded sometimes, he thought. But he was somehow curious about how it occurred, so he asked carefully: "How did you get that eye?" Lilly sighed once again, before shakily whispering: "I... I rather don't talk about that. It's a past I w-want to forget." Eri nodded understandable, but he knew it would be something that happened before she got here. He quickly changed the subject and talked about a few things he did today. Lilly cheered up after a while, and they just talked and talked. Until it was time for bed, but they continued their conversation in whispering. But at one point, they decided to go to sleep too.

"Mrrow~, Desti-kun~!" A voice shouted. Eri opened his eyes a bit, hearing a few kids panic. He quickly sat up once he noticed the panicked atmosphere. With wide eyes, he stared at the huge hole in the wall, big clouds of dust still rising up. In the dust cloud, was a dark silhouette of a woman. Eri wanted to grab his Dialyo on instinct, only cursed to himself in his mind when he realized that he left it on the boat. "Desti-kun~! Come out, come out wherever you are, mrrow~!" The weird voice spoke again. The voice sounded very arrogant, but stupid and annoying at the same time. A door in the back of the room slammed open, a very angry Destiney standing in the doorway. She protectively stood in front of the group of kids when the girl stepped out of the dust cloud. She was long and slender, but instead of skin she was covered in tiger fur. She had messy, orange hair that reached to her shoulders. Big tiger ears were sticking out of the hair mess. A pair of piercing, green cat eyes looked at Destiney, together with a sharp-teethed grin. The girl had black polished, cat-like nails, too. She was also wearing a very short, white dress with black accents and black, leather boots. To finish the outfit, she was wearing a golden bracelet, decorated with many jewels and a pearl chain around her upper leg. Her long cat tail was moving from side to side excitedly, as she said in her annoying voice: "So the mouse revealed herself to the cat, hm, mrrow~?" Eri looked at the girl in disgust, but stayed quiet. Destiney glared at the girl, murmuring with her hands close to her swords: "Shut up, Rena. Enough with those lame insults from you." Rena glared a bit fiercer, responding: "Sorry that I broke your poor little heart, Desti-kun. Besides, have you already thought about my offer, mrrow~?" Destiney glared a bit fiercer, too: "You'll never get this house, stupid cat." Rena chuckled amusedly. "So you don't care if I kill your sister? Nice and slowly, mrrow~?" Destiney bit on her lip, raising her voice: "Don't you dare to lay a finger on my sister! I'll make a rug out of you if you ever try that!" Rena grinned wider, a bit wickedly. "Then give me the house. You'll get your sister in return, mrrow~." Destiney raised her voice again: "These kids won t be able to go anywhere when you take this house! You know damn well that the city doesn't allow so many kids on the streets! They'll be brought back to the hell that they used to call home!" Rena laughed loudly. Her laugh was even more annoying than her voice. "Oh, I'm so touched, mrrow~. I don't care about a bunch of brats! Go dump them in the sewers or something. Or give them to me! Might be useful as food for my pets, mrrow~!" Destiney snapped, pulling out both of her swords and dashed towards her, yelling: "Stupid cat! You'll never get these kids!" Rena just smirked, disappearing in less than a second when Destiney was about to chop her head off. Rena reappeared behind her when she lost balance. Rena quickly wrapped her arm around her neck and pulled her back in a strong grip, quickly snatching away her swords with her free hand and tail. She whispered in Destiney's ear: "Not so fast, Desti-kun~, I have different plans now. If I take you away, those kids will die eventually. And I noticed you have a new kid. Remember my visits every time you exceeded the number of kids you're holding here, mrrow~? Hiding them on all sorts of places? Guess what? You exceeded your number. She'll end up like pet food, just like the other exceeders, mrrow~." Destiney struggled like crazy, yelling: "Bitch! Don't you dare! Not again! First taking away the kids you said I had too many, then my sister, now both? You're insane! Let me go!" Rena ignored the struggling Destiney and yelled: "Get the new girl, too! We'll take them both!" Out of nowhere, a whole group of bandits appeared out of nowhere. Two started tying up Destiney, one took care of the swords and another one started looking for Eri. Eri panicked and tried to flee, but got caught around his waist by a thin, but strong bandit. The bandit said: "Not so fast, kid! You're coming with us!" Eri looked around in panic, only to see that in the group of kids, Lilly started to cry. Eri looked away, feeling even more stupid for forgetting his Dialyo. He closed his eyes, concentrating as he tried his last hope.

Meanwhile, back on the ship of the Mizu Pirates, Keii was teaching Yuki a few new sentences. Layla was making Lunch in the kitchen. Until Eri returned, the days were filled with cleaning, eating, fishing and other small things. "How are you d-doing?" Yuki said slowly. Keii felt proud of herself for teaching Yuki something new this afternoon, and ruffled through Yuki's hair as some sort of reward. She giggled happily in response and hugged Keii tightly, shouting happily: "Keii-kun! Keii-kun!" Keii just laughed loudly in response, hugging her back. But the hugging soon ended into chasing each other over the deck, trying to catch the other as some sort of game. That was mostly how they spended their time together when Layla was cooking, teaching and weird games. But when Layla was around, they always teased her or tried to steal food. Both of those activities ending up into Layla chasing them angrily with a frying pan. As Yuki was chasing after Keii, she suddenly stopped. She frowned deeply and Keii walked back to her, asking a bit worriedly: "Something wrong? Tired already?" Yuki just kept frowning, staring into nowhere and seemed to totally ignore Keii. After a while of silence, Yuki widened her eyes in panic and ran to the side of the boat where the land was, jumping up and changing in her owl form, screeching loudly while she flew towards the mountains: "Eri-kun! Eri-kun!" Keii just stood there, confused about what just happened. She ran to the kitchen, because Yuki wouldn't yell Eri like that for nothing. She slammed the door open and said: "Layla, something happened to Eri. Yuki just flew away out of nowhere towards the orphanage in panic." "What? What are we standing around, then? Let's go!" Layla said, slightly surprised. She stopped with everything she was doing, throwing her apron on the ground and they both jumped off the ship, running towards the mountains.

"All ready now, mrrow~? Let's go back, then!" Rena said, laughing. The bandits lifted up the tied up Eri and Destiney on their shoulders, nodding. They all walked out of the destroyed orphanage, but stopped when a loud screech was heard. Eri grinned widely, saying calmly: "Seems like my friend is heading this way." Rena turned around towards Eri, walking over to him and lifted his head up with her nail, glaring slightly and saying: "Who the hell are you talking abou-" Rena got interrupted by a loud noise behind her. She turned around, not even the slightest bit intimidated by the huge, mad owl in front of her. Yuki screeched, a bit worried: "Eri-kun! Eri-kun! How are you doing?" Eri mentally facepalmed at her choice of words in this situation, but responded: "Good, good. By the way, see the cat lady there? Can you beat her up for me, Yuki?" Rena was confused by the sudden change of situations, but was surprised when Yuki slammed her away with her wing, right into a tree. "Good girl!" Eri said and laughed for a moment. Yuki also hooted in amusement, but was caught by surprise when nails pierced through her still stretched out wings. She screeched in anger, turning to Rena, who was standing again with a grin and stretched arm. She said with a chuckle: "Tiger special: Extended claw, mrrow~" The nails in Yuki's wing shaped into a glowing, orange tiger claw. Yuki screeched again when Rena clutched her hand, while at the same time the tiger claw tightened too. Yuki didn't had to think twice and changed in her human form, slipping her arm out of the grip of the glowing, transparent tiger claw. The claw disappeared and Yuki changed in her hybrid form. Rena glared fiercely and said: "Stupid bird. I knew you were a devil fruit user, but" She grinned again disappearing and reappearing behind Yuki "I'm faster." Before Yuki could react, Rena already lifted the smaller girl up by her neck. Yuki tried to haul back with her claws, but couldn't reach her. Rena's grip tightened, her nails digging in Yuki's neck. Yuki yelped in panic, struggling to break free. "Tiger special: Pulse" With a wicked grin, her arm and hand shook for a second. Blood splattered out of Yuki's mouth when a strong force went from Rena's hand through her neck, spine and further through her body. It felt like a strong person punched her with a huge fist. Rena said again: "Tiger special: Pulse, mrrow~" More blood splattered from Yuki's mouth as the force went through her body again. She breathed heavily, but started to glow a light green out of nowhere. Rena raised an eyebrow, but slightly freaked out when Yuki's head turned around in half a circle, facing her with blood still dripping out of her mouth, rolled away eyes and a fierce glare. She screeched loudly and broke out of Rena's grip when she pecked with her beak in Rena's arm. Rena wanted to attack, but was too late and Yuki grabbed her around her shoulders with her claws, flying up as far as she could in her hybrid form. She threw her up as strong as possible, so she would fall a great distance to the ground. Rena thought quickly, and surprised Yuki again by landing right on her back, grabbing her neck and yelled with another wicked grin: "Tiger special: Pulse!" The force ran through Yuki's body again, and she lost control of her flying. She fell and smashed in the ground, Rena jumping off right on time and landed gracefully a few feet away. Yuki stopped glowing, her head and legs up in the air and her face on the ground, her arms spread out and somehow keeping her in that position. Rena laughed loudly, and Eri wad just shocked by the power of Rena's devil fruit abilities. He kept looking worriedly at the defeated Yuki, but hung his head low after a while, hoping she'd be okay.

"Is it safe? Are they gone? How is that bird girl?" The group of kids asked each other after a while. Lilly stopped crying after a while, knowing she had to be strong for her friend. With this thought, confidence burned up in her and she stood up, saying: "We have to help bird girl! Maybe she has friends who can get big sister and little sister back! Maybe they're even stronger!" Everyone agreed after a small discussion and Lilly felt proud of herself. They carefully scuffled over to the still passed out Yuki, carefully laying her on her back in a better position. She didn't seem to have any serious injuries on the outside, so they carefully carried her inside the remains of the orphanage, some of the kids amazed by Yuki's feathers.

A few meters away, Keii and Layla had arrived right after Yuki crashed in the ground. Keii was boiling with anger, but knew she couldn't attack right away. They were bandits, so maybe there would be treasure for them later. Well, Layla thought that would be a better idea. If Keii was alone, she would have kicked that annoying girl's ass right away. To see her friend all beaten up like that, while they've been having fun with games and teasing just a few minutes again, brought Keii in the most dangerous level of anger. She protected her friends, so she was even angrier when Eri got kidnapped by the tiger girl. They jumped down the tree and Keii stomped in the direction the bandits went, grumbling: "I'll beat her up for kidnapping Eri, beating up Yuki and destroying the home of those kids. She'll be a rug for our ship when I'm done with her!"


	11. Chapter 11

This New Water World

Ch. 11

An over-angry Keii stood in front of a closed, abandoned temple. She pretty much punched on the stone door in an attempt to open it, yelling: "Open up, you cat! Stupid tiger! I'll kill you for hurting and kidnapping my friends, you bitch!" Layla sighed, walking over to Keii and grabbed her wrists in attempt to calm her down, frowning and glaring slightly while yelling: "Oi! Getting all mad like this isn't going to help, Keii! We need to find a way how to get in here!" Keii glared back for a moment before cropping up her anger again and sighed. She looked away from Layla, who let go of her wrists and mumbled: "Good. Now, maybe we can just inspect that door now." She walked over to the stone door, looking at the ancient language on the door, but she couldn't understand a word of it. She started looking at the sides of the door and suddenly noticed a strange mechanism.

"Oi, Keii. Any idea how this works?" Layla said with a frown, and Keii quickly hurried over to take a look. There were 3 mammoth-shaped buttons sticking out and some kind of wave-like pattern between the buttons and a series of gears. The gears were connected to bigger ones, which were attached to ropes. The mechanism looked a bit worn out and replaced several times, but still seemed to work, because when Keii curiously pressed on a button, the ropes moved. She laughed and said: "Oh, this'll be easy!" Keii started pressing on the buttons randomly. The ropes started moving quickly and Keii just kept pressing the buttons. After a long while, the door suddenly opened. Keii looked at Layla with a grin and said: "I'm a damn genius, eh?" Layla rolled with her eyes in response and walked inside the temple, Keii following right after her.

But as soon as Layla stepped inside, she stood on a button. A sharp dagger shot past her, almost hitting her right in her face but she was able to move her head away in time. "W-Woah! Hold on! There are traps here?" Layla said, still a bit shocked by the sudden dagger. Keii frowned, nodding slowly and said calmly: "Let me lead the way. They only seem to aim for the head so intruders would be dead right away." Layla raised an eyebrow confusedly and asked: "How are you going to do that, then? It's impossible to craw here with all the shattered bones and glass on the ground!" Keii sighed and said with a smirk: "You can just go in your wolf form. Then your head won't get hit. And I have my own way to handle this, so don't you dare to laugh." Layla was still confused, but nodded and transformed in her wolf form and started walking through the small tunnel, keeping her head down when the daggers flew just above her head. Keii sighed and closed her eyes, her head slowly changing into water. Only she wasn't able to keep it stable, just like with her arms or legs. So her head was a bit misshaped and she looked a bit silly with her facial features all scrambled and deformed. She still had her sight, though, and started walking after Layla. The daggers just shot straight through the water, but didn't hurt Keii at all. Layla sneakily looked back at Keii, only to quickly look back forward, trying her best to keep her laugh in. When they finally reached the end of the hall, Layla sighed in relief. Keii quickly changed herself back as soon as she reached the end too. "Well, at least we got out of there alive. Great idea, by the way." Layla said, also transforming back in her human form.

They reached a large, silver hall. The walls were decorated with strange, blue patterns. The patterns glowed all of the sudden and formed a path to a small pond. Thin waterfalls fell in the pond, all the way from the roof. The room itself looked like it hadn't been visited in ages. Moss and grass started growing through the stone and roots of trees were hanging from the ceiling. Keii frowned and mumbled confusedly: "It feels like I know this place." "How? Why? We've never been here before!" Layla said confusedly. Without saying a word, Keii walked to the pond. Layla hurried after her until she stopped in front of the pond. There was a pillar standing in the middle of the pond. Keii whispered something to herself before pulling off her shoes and carefully stepping in the pond. "H-Hey! This isn't the time to mess around, Keii! We have to save Eri!" Layla said, a bit bossily. Keii shot a glare towards her and yelled: "Shut up!" Layla was a bit surprised by the rough reaction and stepped back a bit, thinking it's the best to stay quiet. Keii sighed and carefully tried not to slip. Once she reached the pillar, she just stared at it for a while.

Slowly, she placed her hand on the pillar and closed her eyes. Layla yelped a bit in the background when the blue patterns on the wall started glowing even more, confusedly yelling at Keii: "Oi, what do you think you're doing?" Keii didn't respond and she just stared wide-eyed at her hand on the pillar, slowly whispering in her own voice, but mixed with a bit of a deeper voice: "This t-temple... Is made by the first users of the devil fruits that are based on water or water creatures. Not only water, but also ice, mist, soap and other water-based things." Layla was confused by the sudden change of Keii's voice and said worriedly: "What's wrong with you? Just get back here before something happens!" Keii turned her head towards Layla, but still kept her hand on the pillar. Her eyes were glowing slightly and she continued: "Only the users with water-based devil fruits are able to get our treasure: 'Heaven's vessel'." The room glowed even brighter, Layla panicking in worry and yelled: "Get away from that pillar, Keii!" But she didn't moved away. Her eyes glowed brightly all of the sudden, the room starting to shake. Many doors appeared and opened out of nowhere, some of them unreachable high on the wall. Keii whispered: "Only water fruits. Only the water devil fruits." Suddenly, Keii's arm that was resting on the pillar transformed into a water tentacle. Only it looked different. More 'tamed' and solid. The water also seemed more clear. The tentacles shot out of the opened door, all towards Layla. Layla quickly transformed in her wolf form and dodged the tentacles, yelling: "Keii, listen! I'm your friend, your first mate!" Only Keii didn't seem to listen and the water tentacles just kept chasing after Layla. She tried to cut them, but they would only regenerate into more. "Damn it, Keii!" Layla yelled and she dashed to the pond, the tentacles chasing her. She took a long jump towards Keii in a last attempt to calm her, the tentacles following after Layla.


	12. Chapter 12

**This new water world**

**Ch. 12**

Layla panted heavily. She was in her wolf form and has pinned Keii down on the ground. They were both soaked in water because as soon as Layla had Keii on the ground and away from the pillar, the water tentacles just rained down.

Keii stared wide-eyed at the roof, not really noticing Layla. After a while, Layla said: "Oi, captain. Are you okay?"

Keii remained silent and kept staring. Layla stepped off of her and sat down next to her, waiting for her captain to wake up. She felt a bit panicked, though, because they still had to safe Eri.

Keii sat up after a while, resting her elbows on her knees and holding onto her head, mumbling: "What the hell was that?"

Layla quietly responded: "No idea, but I'm glad you finally snapped out of it." Keii nodded in response and calmly said: "But there's still a voice in my head. It says: 'Get the Heaven's Vessel.'"

'Heaven's Vessel?' Layla thought 'What the hell is that supposed to mean? She did say something about it in her trance.'

Keii stood up and said: "I'll follow my instincts. Let's go." She walked up to a waterfall and concentrated. After a while, the stream of the waterfall seemed to bend, forming an entrance in another hall.

Layla was confused. Really confused. How could she suddenly find this out? Layla stayed outside, but Keii walked inside the mysterious, dark hall.

Keii looked alertly around the room, because she somehow felt watched. In the middle of the dark room, a light was shining down from a crack in the roof. The light was shining on a pillar, where something was resting on.

Keii sneaked closer, still carefully looking around her. When she reached the pillar, she examined the object on the pillar.

It looked like a water stream which was going up, and a necklace hung around it. A water vessel hung on the golden necklace. The vessel was beautifully decorated with more gold. The water seemed crystal clear, even though the vessel was very dusty.

Keii kneeled down and read a small inscription in the pillar. 'Those who ate a water-type of any kind of devil fruit, must show it to Heaven's Vessel to acquire it.'

Keii thought for a while, then made a water tentacle of her arm, carefully picking up the vessel, which pretty much sunk into the water tentacle.

It suddenly gave an odd glow, and before Keii could notice, the vessel was gone. But she felt something hanging around her neck, and when she looked down she saw the vessel hanging.

At least her water tentacle made it look less dusty. She looked at the vessel for a while before quietly walking back to Layla, who was still patiently waiting in her wolf-form.

"And? Found something?" She curiously asked. Keii nodded, holding up the vessel: "Heaven's Vessel! Only I have no idea why it would be useful. I feel a bit stronger, though."

"Well, that's good, right?" Layla said, looking at the vessel in amazement. "Maybe you should try something you couldn't do before!" She said curiously.

Keii thought for a while, then lifted her arm up to try and lick her elbow. Layla sighed and rolled with her eyes, saying annoyed: "With your ability, idiot."

Keii laughed sheepishly: "I know, I know..!" She concentrated, and suddenly her whole body transformed into water, but she only ended up in a small puddle of water with a face. "Damn it." She said, before changing back.

"Still needs practice, I see. Are we going now? We have to find Eri!" Layla said and Keii nodded in response. But she heard a commotion behind her in the room where the vessel was. It sounded like a bunch of thieves who were arguing.

"Shit!" Layla cursed quietly. "Who's there?" A bandit yelled. Keii slightly glared at Layla. They tried to search for a hiding spot, but the room didn't had any. They had to prepare for a fight.

Layla transformed into her hybrid form and Keii changed both of her arms into water tentacles. But it remained silent. Did they walk away? But they never heard footsteps.

Layla and Keii looked at each other confusedly, but yelped when someone swiftly clicked a thick, seastone collar around both of their necks.

They turned around and noticed the bandits from before. Keii's arms changed back and Layla also transformed into her human form again. Keii wasn't used to this huge amount of seastone, and her world started to spin.

The same was wrong with Layla. Before she and Keii passed out, they heard the bandits say with a chuckle: "Miss Rena will love visitors."


	13. Chapter 13

**This New Water World**

**Ch. 13**

_A.n.: I'm VERY sorry for the huge delay! I've been ill AND had a writer's block x.X But here it is! DO NOT OWN OP_**  
**

__**Warning: A few bits of violence in this chapter (Like torture). I don't know if I'll get in trouble with it because of the rating, but I still warn you.  
**

Keii slowly came to her senses. She didn't want to open her eyes, because of a huge headache.

She felt like she had some kind of hangover or something, until an echoing sound of something clashing, loud screaming and crazy laughing reached her ears.

Keii slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry and spinning, and her headache only got worse.

After a while of struggling with her vision, she managed to sit up. Her eyes went wide when she heard the sounds clearly.

Layla. Where was she? Why did her screaming reached her ears?

She looked around the cage when her vision was clear again. No Layla or any other person.

Keii felt weak. She looked down at her hands and noticed a tight, sea stone ring around her finger. "Damn it." She cursed softly.

She managed to stand up after a while and walked to the side of the cage to look where she was, but the only thing she found was rather shocking.

Layla was chained to the wall on the other side of the room with her arms spread wide. Her face was wet from tears and sweat and her whole body was covered in sharp cuts and red stretch marks. Her clothes were in ruins and stained with blood.

Keii could hear her crying softly in pain. In front of the suffering Layla was a girl with tiger-striped fur all over her body, and a whip clutched tightly in her hand. Wait, isn't that the girl that kidnapped Eri? There was no mistaking it.

Keii's eyes widened when the girl roughly whipped Layla across her stomach. Layla screamed in pain, because the whip made a small cut deeper. The girl laughed and yelled: "Are you finally going to tell where the rest of your crew is? And your ship?"

Layla bit on her lip and shook her head as a response. Keii couldn't help but chuckle, and whipped a tear away. Damn, Layla was the most loyal person Keii ever met. Well, her whole crew was full of extremely loyal people, for sure.

Keii felt a bit proud for the loyalty of Layla and the rest of the crew, but anger boiled up inside of her. How dared that girl to treat her first mate like that?

"Get your dirty hands off of her, you stupid cat!" Keii yelled loudly. The girl was startled for a second, but then moved her tail around in amusement before responding: "Finally awake, Miss Captain, mrrow~?"

"Stop hurting Layla, you idiot!" Keii yelled back. The girl answered: "Please, Rena is enough, mrrow~.. And I was just having a bit of fun with your first mate! I'm a bandit, after all. If I'm able to sell your crewmates and treasure, I'd make lots of money, mrrow~! And a woman like me does everything to be wealthy."

"But, I was about to give her back to you, Miss Captain, mrrow~. I'm done playing, and will come back for you later." Rena continued. Keii growled. She was annoyed by this dumb bandit already.

Rena unchained Layla and carried her back to the cage over her shoulder. Layla panted heavily, eyes wide in fear and curled up a bit as soon as Rena threw her back in the cage.

"I'll see you toys later, mrrow~!" Rena said, before she walked off, laughing loudly. As soon as she shut the door of the room, Keii scuffled over to Layla, turning her on her back.

When Layla saw the worried look in her captain's eyes, she wheezed a bit through her talking: "I k-kept us.. All s-safe, captain.. A-And.." Layla smirked widely "Some cats are r-really.. Stupid..!" She shakily lifted her hand up and a very small key was stuck under her nail.

It looked painful, but Keii managed to get it out without hurting Layla too much. But Keii noticed that it was the key to get her ring off, and not the handcuffs of Layla.

As soon as Layla noticed her captain's confused look, she whispered weakly: "D-Don't worry, I only m-managed.. To snatch the key of.. Y-Your sea stone.."

Keii panicked. Layla already looked weak from the many wounds that were covering her body, but together with the sea stone she'll be barely alive! "Layla, are you crazy? Do you want to die or something?" Keii yelled.

Layla chuckled and simply answered: "No.. I want y-you to save.. Eri.. A-And kick Rena's ass f-for beating up Yuki, hurting th-those orphans and.. The s-swordswoman.."

Keii could almost cry because of Layla's actions. Most people would be selfish and save themselves when they were on the verge of death. But Layla would only care for others, which was stupid but touching too.

Keii unlocked her sea stone ring and threw it aside. She ripped pieces off of her jacket to use it as some kind of bandage to stop most of Layla's wounds from bleeding.

By the time Keii was done, Layla already passed out. Keii sighed and stood up, walking to the side of the cage. She had to find a way to get away from here.

She transformed her arm in a water tentacle and managed to get it outside of the cage. She pushed herself against the iron bars of the cage as close as possible, trying to reach the door's lock but was unable to.

Keii sighed and thought for a second, but then remembered the Heaven's Vessel she found earlier. That strange hallucination said that it would make her stronger.

But stronger in what? Fighting? No, that couldn't be it. It was in a water temple, after all. It must've something to be with her powers. Wait, could this mean she could transform her arms into multiple tentacles or something?

She decided to try, and noticed how the water tentacle that was her arm, started to sprout out smaller tentacles. Keii grinned widely, but was still unable to reach the lock.

She tried it with both arms, and it worked again. But, the water crawled up more and more, and the water reached to her shoulders.

This was strange. She mostly wasn't able to get the water further than half of her upper arm. As she concentrated, the water went up further. Down her chest and stomach, down her legs and up her neck.

Before she knew it, she was fully made of water. She grinned again and just walked through the iron bars. She transformed back quickly. It was awesome she found a new power! But this couldn't be the only thing, right? She looked around the cage, and noticed a few wreck dolls in the corner. Training time, Keii thought.

Eri sat next to Rena's throne, which was decorated with several kinds of fur. From raccoons to snow leopards to crocodile scales. Eri was tied up with several thick ropes, and one bandit stood next to him. He was holding a rather big gun, which freaked Eri out a bit.

Eri glanced at the other side of the room, where Destiney was tied to a pole.

Another girl with black hair with white stripes near her face, extremely pale face and a brown, dirty dress was stuck in a cage, chained up from her neck to her feet.

She looked like she was in some kind of shock, because she was just staring at the floor of the cage, mouth hanging open and not blinking. She almost looked dead, but you could see she was still breathing.

Eri shuddered and glanced at Destiney, who couldn't avert her worried gaze away from the girl.

Did she knew her? Was this that sister Rena kept blabbering about? There wasn't really any other option. Why else would that weird girl be here?

Eri's train of thoughts got interrupted by a door slamming open, and there stood Rena, swinging her tail around in excitement and a knife in her hand.

She turned her attention to Eri, who gulped in slight fear. He was defenseless right now without his Dialyo. Rena walked over to Eri, grinning when she noticed the familiar ball-shaped pigtails.

"Skypiea.. There's no mistaking it, mrrow~!" Rena purred when she inspected him. Shit. He was caught. By a stupid tiger bandit, at that.

This is when Destiney looked away from the girl to Rena. She yelled in protest: "If you lay a finger on that child, you're going to be my personal carpet! Besides, she ain't got any wings!" Don't make it worse, damn it! Eri cursed in his head.

"We'll see about that.." Rena purred again, cutting open Eri's dress from behind him. Shit, shit, shit. He'll be doomed when they find out is secret.

Rena was surprised to find a corset, but just cut that too, and Eri's small wings unfolded a bit, his damaged one still slightly crooked and bandaged.

"Oh? What do we have here.. Aren't you a bit too muscled on your back for a little girl, mrrow~?" Rena purred confusedly. Please, no. For the love of god, don't put me to shame, Eri begged in his head.

But it was too late, because Rena had already cut off the rest of his dress, revealing his slightly muscled chest and stomach. Rena accidentally cut through the small elastics that kept his pigtails in place.

The ball-shaped ponytails hanged down, a few on the sides and back and another one hanging in his face. Eri growled and blushed a bit in shame.

"Hehe, aren't you a handsome Skypiea boy, mrrow~?" Rena said, pushing him face-first on the ground with her sharp heel. It stinged badly in his still wounded wing.

Destiney was too shocked to say anything, but got even more shocked by what Rena said: "I heard that the wings of Sky people are worth a lot on the black market."

Eri panicked and yelled in his normal voice: "Don't you dare! My wings are my pride a-" but his voice got cut off when Rena grabbed a hatchet and mercilessly cut off his wounded wing.

Eri screamed loudly in pain, even though his large wound quickly got patched up by bandits. It felt like a huge bone broke in his back. He panted heavily when the pain faded away and bit on his lip.

He felt like Rena took away part of his pride and dignity.

He bit on his lip. His back felt half empty and half comfortable. He felt stupid that he was so defenseless right now.

When he was about to be brought to a cage himself, the door swung open. Eri sighed in relief, because the one person he needed was standing right there.

Keii. Tall and proud she stood in the large doorway. Rena had just returned from the storage room and smirked widely when she saw Keii.

They walked towards each other, until they were right in front of each other. Rena with a disgustingly amused grin and Keii with the fiercest glare. "Damn cat, you've kidnapped and hurt my crewmates. You'll really pay."

Rena just laughed: "They just stood in my way. That over-sized chicken was merely like an annoying thorn in my foot, mrrow~. That first mate of yours was a great toy to play with and your little friend here is a great money machine for his origins. Customers on the black market do and pay anything for Sky People's wings, mrrow~!"

Keii growled: "You're honestly disgusting. I'll kill you!" Her arm transformed into a sprouted water tentacle and smacked her right in her face, sending her a few meters backwards. Rena chuckled, stretching out her nails in a fight position. "Bring it on, mrrow~!"


End file.
